Day Break
by Riza Winters
Summary: Faced with the threat of the Vandenreich, Grimmjow finds himself on the run in his own home with a child who won't leave him alone. But when he chooses to stand and fight, it might only be Nel who can save him.
1. Day Break Chap 1

_**A.N.**: Hello dear readers! I jumped on this idea when it popped in my head right after reading Manga Chapter 485. I am SO happy to see the espada back and REALLY hope that Tite Kubo brings back Grimmjow and eventually makes him an ally to our heroes. This story is my idea of what happened in Hueco Mundo since the war with Aizen. It time jumps so make sure to note the days and I swear it all comes together and makes sense, I have already written more than thrity pages. This story counts down to the days of the Vandenreich attack on Soul Society. I look forward to seeing where the canon goes, but I really wanted act on his inspiration now!_

_Also, I tried to research Nel's speech patters but it seems to vary between Manga, Anime, dub, sub, fan-sub, etc, so I have just done my best. Thanks, _

_Riza._

* * *

><p><strong>42 days ago<strong>

"WHAAAAA!" a tiny girl ran through the forest, wailing as loud as her lungs would allow between breaths. Her eyes were wide in her round face, a scar crossing through the middle of her features and running into the white bone mask that sat on her crown.

"Shut up!" The voice caused her to stop in her wild flight, her cry dying in her throat when she saw the man propped at the base of a tree.

"Gri...GRIMMJOW!"  
>"I said...shut up..." Despite his hostility she ran over to him and sat before him, gripping his torn pant leg like she had so many times in the last harrowing weeks. He made no move to fling her off or tell her to let go as he normally would. She saw how laboured his breathing was, blood trickling out of his nose.<p>

"You made it out." She whispered up to him.

"...barely. They got Halibel..."

"But she's so strong!"

Grimmjow weakly shook his head. "It doesn't matter..." He coughed, wheezing like he was only getting a small amount of air and she watched his eyes shut tight in pain. He was covered in small wounds, but none of them should be causing him this amount of suffering.

"What happened?"

"Poison of some sort...guess they got tired of chasing me."

"WHAT? Nel didn't see anything like that!"

His eyes peeled open and he regarded her for a moment "Where were you?"

"Nel went to where her brothers used to play eternal tag with her! Nel thought maybe if she was in danger they would finally show up."

"Not that again." He moaned, "So you didn't get hit?"

"Nel doesn't think so."

"Trust me, you'd know." He wrapped one hand around his stomach and reached for a low branch trying to get up.

"Nel doesn't think Grimmjow should be moving!"

"Neither does Grimmjow but he doesn't have much choice now does he?" His voice was so low and she just stared up at him as he struggled up. She never let go of his pant leg as he staggered onward into the Menos Forest.

"Did Grimmjow see the bodies?" She asked.

"Yeah, poison got every damn thing in this place. Shoulda gone where you went, I guess."

"Nel didn't think she'd ever see any of her friends again!"

"I told you...we're not friends."

"Even after I used my spit to heal what Nniotra did?"

"You puking on me when I can't move does not make us friends, kid." He stumbled and she moved to brace him. She was really too small to be of much use but his hand fell on her mask and stopped him from collapsing entirely. With great difficulty, he rose again but considered her for a moment. "Can't you transform back into an espada again?"

"Nel still doesn't know how."

"Figures." They continued forward.

"Where is the fat one?"

"Yammy? Dunno. Maybe they got him too."

"Nel doesn't like him anyway. He was always mean to her."

"Yeah, neither do I but we need to stick together."  
>"Is that why you haven't yelled at Nel to go away like you usually do?"<p>

He sighed but gave no answer, concentrating on breathing and hoping his spiritual pressure would purge the poison from his body soon.

"Nel heard something. She heard _them _talking in the palace."

This caught his attention. "What did you hear?"

"They said they're going to make an arrancar army and destroy Soul Society." He stared at her before losing his balance and falling against a tree.

"No way."

"Does Grimmjow know what that means?"

"When did you hear this?"

"Well, before Nel found you here, she checked the palace to see if you were still there."

"You got back in?" But he shook his head, trying to jump to the point, "So when?"

She shrugged, "A few days ago."

He slid down the tree and she tried to ease his descent.

"Why is Grimmjow so upset?"

"Halibel...They got Halibel sixteen days ago, maybe Yammy too. Could they be using espada to make new arrancars?"

"Nel doesn't know."

But he was talking to himself. "Shit. I have to get her out of there."

"Is Grimmjow going to rescue his friends?"

"We're not friends, we're just..." he sighed softly, "all we've got left."

"Is that why Grimmjow is happy Nel is here?"

"Who said I was happy?"

"Nel can tell."

"Shut up."

"It's okay, Nel misses her friends too."

She lowered her head. He sighed again and she jumped, feeling the weight of his hand on her head. When she looked up she saw his eyes half closed and more blood trailing from his nose. "You should run, kid, while you can."

His hand slid to the ground and his eyes shut. She watched his chest barely moving. "Grimmjow?" The silence of the forest, the emptiness, the death that surrounded her- it all seemed to crush in on her in the dark and she dared move in closer to him. When he didn't wake and she felt how cold his body was, she hugged herself again his chest and promised him she would not leave.

* * *

><p><strong>Present<strong>

"You should eat something." Halibel did not acknowledge the guard above her. Her food lay untouched before her chained hands. She had found some relief when they'd lowered her arms and she was able to sit back on the ground but pain still throbbed through her broken body, parts of her bone coverings shattered, one leg pinned to the ground by a stake. She heard the frustrated sigh. "Dammit, don't be difficult, woman." The words bit out all too familiar and she looked up sharply, her thin features turning from deadpan to shock.

"No...Grimmjow."

He stood before her, a dark shadow of her former ally. He had on the white trousers and combat boots of the others, but like his old espada uniform, his double breasted coat was short and hung open. It wasn't because they were respecting his personal flare for style, it was so everyone could see the scars on his body. They were still fresh, closed over but pink and painful looking. They'd lashed him all over his torso, she was sure his back was even worse by the way he was standing. He held his shoulders awkwardly, as if something was still really hurting. But his arms were the worst. Wrist, palms and forearms were gouged deep by long gashes, several, like an extreme suicide attempt. She continued to take him in, noticing no weapon, and even in her current condition, she could feel the change in his aura- something was missing, something essential to all beings.  
>"What did they do to your soul, to your zanpakuto? Grimmjow, what did they do to you?"<p>

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." He grunted out, kicking her tray of cold food closer to her. "Eat."

"Grimmjow, do you know what they are doing?" He just stared at her dead eyed. "So that's it, then, you let them turn you?" but even she couldn't predict what such a rent in his aura could mean. He was so damaged he might not even remember their allegiance. For all she knew, the sixth espada was dead.

"They didn't turn me, they _liberated_ me." he said evenly. "Now then, am I going to have to force you to eat?"

When she still made no move he sighed and bent down to pick up her tray. She gasped, seeing the wound at the base of his neck, this one still wasn't closed over, and from it ran a long line of scarred flesh, right up into his hair. He picked up some of her food and held it before her face.

"Last chance to do this civilized-like."

He met her golden lashed gaze and green eyes flared in anger for their captors, their torturers.

"Just tell me, Grimmjow, is there anything left inside of you?

* * *

><p><strong>41 Days ago<strong>

Nel woke when the hand clamped over her mouth. Her first instinct was to bite down until it let go but her teeth just started to sink in when she saw the white figures moving past, not far away and suddenly the trembling arms holding her painfully tight were her safety and she felt his aura covering her, holding back that constant outpouring of energy that escaped her cracked mask. They were in the shadow of dense trees, enough to conceal them from sight but if Grimmjow couldn't contain both their spiritual pressures, they would be found.

It was terrifying. The black masked soldiers swept through the forest in perfect formation, intending to cover every inch. More were moving their way, if they didn't move, they'd be caught but if they did, they risked being seen or heard.

Very carefully he took a step back, his whole body shaking, but he managed to remain silent and in shadow. He was searching for some escape, anything, but they were just being forced back further. They must have felt them here, if they were searching with such precision- Grimmjow couldn't even consider the alternative because that would simply mean they had the resources to search the entire Menos Forest in such detail.

Another step, they were moving much faster than him, he had to make a decsion.

"Halt!" The line of white men froze, so did Grimmjow. But no one seemed to be looking at him.

"They've found the zero espada," a voice reported, "Our strength is required."

"What about the other two?"

"They have less to offer."

There was no more discussion, the line of men vanished. Nel sagged in relief but felt no such relaxation in the body to which she was so tightly pinned. Grimmjow continued to stand in complete stillness and silence. Nel began to struggled but he squeezed her tighter and she stopped. She waited in his grasp, minutes slipping by, wondering what he could possibly be doing when a voice broke the silence.

"Damn, I thought that would bring him out." A white figure dropped from a tree, followed shortly by another.

"This place is more trouble than I thought it would be, we should have never let him get down here. He must be further ahead than we thought, call the others and regroup up ahead."

"Yes Sir." They both vanished. The arms around Nel slipped away and she felt, Grimmjow crashing to hands and knees above her.

"Grimmjow knew they would do that?"

But he was gasping, he'd fought so hard to keep both their spiritual pressures back when he really needed to concentrate on flushing the poison out of his body. She watch his features tighten in pain, blood not only dripping from his nose now but he was spitting it on the ground before him. His arms let got and he fell completely into the ground, his hands wrapping around his stomach and he fought not to let any noise escape him.

"Ah, Grimmjow is dying!" Nel whispered out in fright, some part of her knowing to keep things quiet. When he didn't respond to deny her proclamation and only fused his eyes shut with a look of agony on his features, she got more frantic. "Grimmjow cannot leave Nel! All of Nel's other friends are gone so Grimmjow cannot die!"

She pounded against his arm uselessly, and then changed tactics and wrapped her small arms around his neck, smothering his face in her shoulder. Instantly his hands reached up to her and pressed her tight against him and for an instant she thought he was hugging back but then she felt the vibrations in her body at the power of his screams and realized he was using her to muffle the agony he'd been forcing back. She stood firm, though his desperate fingers dug painfully into her body, because she could at least do this much for him.

"It's okay, Grimmjow, Nel is here."

* * *

><p><strong>572 Days ago.<strong>

"Dondochakka! Pesche! _Brothers_!" the hoarse cry fell on an empty desert under the domed artificial sky of Las Noches. "Where are you? Everyone left Nel!" She wailed, falling to her knees in the sand. Her sobs echoed off the broken pillars and empty land where not long ago Ichigo had been fighting madly with the espada. Now the Soul Reapers had come and gone and she still hadn't found her brothers. She could see stairs and other places but she knew from coming in here how confusing it was and she didn't know how to start searching for her lost friends.

"Why did everyone go?" She sobbed out again, staggering to her feet to continue her laborious search. She only made it a few feet, however, before she tripped on something in the sand and fell across a cold form.

"ACK! A dead body!" Nel pulled herself away at once, stumbling back a pace or two to take in the body. She recognized him at once. "You're espada six, Grimmjow! The one who tried to kill Itsigo!" She pointed at him accusingly but his eyes were just barely parting, and he wasn't moving at all. He was close to death.

"Serves you right for what you did!" She proclaimed to his inert form. He couldn't move or speak, he just stared at her. "Nel should just leave you here..." But she glanced around the barren land and shivered as if the loneliness she felt was a cold wind. "You deserve to die..." She saw the sand stained red all around him, terrible deep wounds in his abdomen and on one side. Flashes of the fifth espada crossed her mind and she thought she remembered herself fighting him but that didn't really make sense. Her memories of the battles were jumbled and she ended up sitting back in the sand, grabbing her masked head. "Nnoitra did this to you..." She heard herself say but when she snapped out of it the words held no meaning to her. She seemed to notice Grimmjow all over again.

"Do you know where Itsigo went? Or Nel's brothers? Do you know how to find them?"

He still couldn't answer.

"If Nel heals you will you help her?"

Nothing.

"Okay, Nel will help you but you have to help her too!"

* * *

><p><strong> 39 Days ago.<strong>

Blue eyes snapped open but could see nothing past the cloth that covered them. Grimmjow felt cool dirt on one side and shifted slightly. When he did, he realized the cloth in front of him was part of a mass that seemed to be attached around his neck.

"Ah, Nel what are you doing?" He pried her off of him, sitting up, but feeling blood rush to his brain and he was forced to sit still while it passed. When the black cleared from his vision he shook his head and got the rest of the way up, stretching his sore body.

"Grimmjow is alive!" The tiny being that was just waking up herself screeched with glee. He remembered the excruciating pain that had struck him, burning in his stomach and lungs and pounding inside his skull, but it was gone now. He looked down at the kid.

"Did you do something?"  
>"Nel just stayed close so that maybe her spiritual pressure that Grimmjow always tells her to control could go into him." He considered this. It was possible that if she'd remained close to him her spiritual pressure could have mixed with his own and helped force the poison out of his body. He was grateful that this was the explanation since the last time she'd healed him had involved her puking a clear liquid all over him.<p>

"Good thinking, kid, how long was I asleep?"

"A long time! Two days at least. But do you really meant it? You think Nel did something good?"  
>He just nodded, still checking himself over to make sure the poison was really gone, then he checked their surroundings. They were exactly where he'd collapsed.<p>

"We should go."

"But if they already checked here, aren't we safe?"

"No. Once they come up with nothing they'll start over. Besides, they sprayed that poison or whatever down here, they could do it again and we'd be screwed."

"What was it?"

"I don't know, but there was a Soul Reaper captain who's zanpakuto did something like that. It could be something they made or it could just be one of their powers. Whatever it was, I don't want to experience it again, so let's go."

"Back to the surface?"

"No other choice. Hueco Mundo is big, we'll find somewhere to hide." His words dropped off darkly and he clenched his fist in anger.

"What is it?" Nel asked grabbing his pant leg in fear that the masked soldiers had returned.

"It's just wrong." Grimmjow said it more to himself as he often did around Nel as if she was his subconscious. "This is _our_ home! How could they have us running for our lives like this in our own world? What the hell are they anyway?"  
>"The Vandenreich." Nel responded.<p>

"What?"

"That's what they called themselves."

"When you were in the palace?"

"Uh huh."

"And how did you break in again?"

"Nel just followed the way she and Ichigo went last time!"

"Ichigo, huh, that's right, he busted in on the opposite side of the main gate. So they didn't see you?"

"Well, Nel got scared when she found the soldiers and left before she got too far."

"This is good."

"Grimmjow isn't going back there!" She screamed, seeing his half smile.

"They took our home, Nel, and they took Halibel. They're setting up their base of operations in Las Noches, so no doubt they took Halibel back there to do God knows what to her in order to make an arrancar army. So that is where I intend to go. I'm sick of running."

Nel's fingers clenched in his hakama and he looked down at her. "You should hide, Nel."

"What! Nel doesn't want to leave Grimmjow!"

"Unless you want to revert back to your espada form, then you will only slow me down."

Her eyes watered in hurt and anger. "Nel told you she doesn't remember how! But Nel won't slow you down, promise!"

He sighed, a very familiar sound to her and she just clung to his leg tighter.

"Maybe you should go to the human world for a while. You can go find your old friend Ichigo." He tried but her face only turned into a deeper scowl. "You KNOW he can't see me!"

"Well you can see him and his friends should still be able to see you. I'll open the Garganta for you, come on."

"NO! Nel can open the Garganta too if she wants, she's not stupid, but scary Shinigami are there!"

"Well scary Vandenreich are here!"

"Then go to the human world with Nel!"

"No, I'm not running away."

"Then neither is Nel!"

"Brat, just do what I say!" He gave a shake of his leg but he knew by now that it would take alot more to get her to let go. Another sigh. "Okay, fine, I did my best to save you, but when they catch you don't expect me to help. I'm only interested in rescuing one of the third espadas."

"Okay!" She pulled back from his leg happily but didn't let go entirely, keeping a firm hand in his hakama in case he decided to sodino away and leave her behind.

* * *

><p><strong>Present<strong>

"There." Grimmjow rose, lifting the now empty tray. "I hope you won't make it a habit to be force-fed every day, it's not very attractive."

Halibel spit the last gob of food that was in her mouth at him. His eyes narrowed. Her head flew to the side from his back hand and he stood up. "You're pathetic." He turned to the door.

"Grimmjow!"

He paused and looked back at her, blood now oozing from her lip. "What?"

"What happened to Nel?" His eyes widened before narrowing and she saw his hand clench around the metal tray. He said nothing, turning and slamming the door shut behind him. The smallest of smiles touched her swollen lips.

"So, they haven't erased you entirely, Grimmjow Jaggerjaques."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Thanks for reading! More will come soon!<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	2. Day Break Chap 2

**560 days ago**

"Oh man, this place is a wreck." Grimmjow scrolled through screen after screen showing the different landscapes of Las Noches. Underground mazes and halls and labs were in shambles. The domed desert he already knew was in rough shape. Here and there walls were missing or great holes spotted ceilings. But then he saw what he was looking for lumbering down a hallway.

"So we're not alone."

"Who's the fat guy?" Nel's head bounced before him and he shoved her roughly to one side. "Hey! That's not very nice!"

"I told you to get away from me or you're going to get hurt."

"But you have to help Nel!"

"I never agreed to that."

"Well you never said no."

"No."

Her tiny face scrunched up in pure rage. "Meanie! Poopie head!"

He pointed his hand at her and she saw a build up of energy. "Get away from me kid or I'll kill you."

"But, but you have to help Nel find her friends! And Itsigo! What happened to Itsigo?"

Grimmjow dropped his hand at this and looked from the screen of Yammy limping to his quarters back to her. "Ichigo..." he still felt the soreness of his wounds but a feral grin spread over his face and Nel backed away more afraid of that look of blood lust than the cero he'd pointed at her moments ago.

"Okay, kid, deal! I guess I do owe you one and I hate to have debts. I'll take you to Ichigo."

"And my friends?"

Grimmjow glanced back at the screen. "Haven't seen them yet. Probably got killed by Soul Reapers."

"Wh..WHAT?" He winced at the cry that came out of her, first a scream, turning to hysterical sobs.

"Sorry kid, that's what shinigami do." He said unsympathetically and deciding to finish scrolling through the screens while she cried herself out. It took a long time, but so did searching all of Las Noches for survivors. It had been nearly two weeks since the battles in Hueco Mundo and in the Human World, he expected to find more survivors here. Maybe everyone had crossed over after Aizen's victory. Even more reason to go through the Garganta and find out what was going on. But then this thought gave him pause- would Aizen be aware of his actions during the battle- his blatant disregard for orders so he could face Ichigo? Maybe Ichigo was already dead, and he himself was a traitor and they'd never get to finish their fight. But he shook these concerns away- whatever the case, he had to find out what was going on.

"You done?" he looked over at the child who had finally exhausted herself crying.

"Does Grimmjow really think they're dead?"

"You know what, kid, this place is huge, they could be anywhere." He lied, knowing the chances were that two weaklings like them had probably been annihilated, but not wanting to suffer through any more of her hysterics.

"REALLY?" Her eyes sparkled with hope.

"Sure, besides, they could also be outside in the desert. We'll look for them when we get back from the world of the living." She shouted something happily to which he paid no attention and he opened the Garganta. He flinched when she hopped up onto his shoulder but they were already going through.

Grimmjow had many shocks on the other side. When he found the material world intact, humans going about their regular lives, he started to realize Aizen had lost, the espada had lost, and the reason they hadn't returned wasn't that they were here, it was because they were dead. He opened his pesquisa to try to locate them, anyone, but there was nothing.

"I can't believe it..." he started but then he clenched his fists and thought of how he'd lost his own battle with Ichigo, "Or maybe I can. Still..." he didn't know exactly what he felt. He didn't particularly like the other espada, but he also didn't really like the thought of being alone.

"Damn." He swore, feeling pathetic and he moved on through the human world, Nel in tow, searching for the one human that could give him a purpose again.

And then they had their next shock. He hadn't been able to sense out his spiritual pressure, but he'd recognized the others around him. His father, his sisters, they all had the same edge to their spiritual pressure, leading him straight to their home. "Why can't I feel him?" He asked, landing on Ichigo's window sill in the dead of night, staring at the sleeping boy. Nel had less reserve though, leaping from his shoulder onto the slumbering teen and screaming his name.

Ichigo came violently awake and Grimmjow stiffened, not intending to be found spying on him while he slept, but Ichigo just looked around the room startled. Grimmjow looked him over and felt a bitter disappointment spread over him.

"It's no good, kid." He shot at Nel who was screaming in Ichigo's face but having no effect. "He's lost his powers. He's just a regular human now."

"What?"

"Come on, let's go." He ended up having to forcibly drag her off of Ichigo and back through the Garganta. He hadn't been concentrating when forming it and ended up far out in the desert rather than back at Las Noches but he didn't care. Every reason he had to keep going was gone. Aizen. Ichigo. He hated them both, really, but they'd given him some sort of drive or direction. The other espada were gone, save Yammy, the most idiotic of their ranks. Before, he had thrived on trying to move up in power, to prove his strength, but what point was there to that now?

He slogged through the sand, forgetting the child who called out for her brothers between her new tears over Ichigo.

They wandered for days. Grimmjow was literally walking aimlessly and killing anything that dared to get in his way while Nel mistook this for helping her look for her brothers and protecting her from bad hollows. When he began to get tired and she was stumbling from exhaustion he finally decided to return to Las Noches.

He only noticed she was still following him when he was stomping up the white steps and heard her panting behind him. He stopped and stared down at her.

"What are you doing?"

"Following Grimmjow." She answered with an expression that read _obviously. _

"Stop it."

"But we still haven't found Nel's brothers."

He sighed, "I am not looking for them. I took you to Ichigo in return for you healing me. That's it, I'm done, now get out of my sight before I kill you."

"Grimmjow shouldn't say mean things like that when he's so lonely."

"What?" He balled his fist but she just nodded in agreement to her own statement.

"Grimmjow lost his friends too so he should be nicer to the ones he's got."  
>"You are not my friend, and neither were they. Go now, or I kill you." He raised his hand toward her again and there was no mistaking the threat but she just jumped forward and wrapped her arms and legs around his calf.<p>

"Well then you'll just have to blow you're whole leg off!"

His eyes widened and he dropped his arm. He shook his leg as hard as he could but could not dislodge her.

"Okay, kid, now this is going to get messy." He reached and pulled out Pantera, though it still didn't seem to phase her. But his attention was drawn away by a sudden flare of spiritual pressure and amidst all his despair, he suddenly felt hope and began running up the stairs, forgetting the weight wrapped around one leg.

Even with sodino it still took him a long time to reach them, this place was so huge. But he found them on the far end of the domed desert near a golden roofed building.

"Grimmjow." The woman standing before Yammy greeted. "You seem to have something attached to your leg."

"Halibel," he breathed out, ignoring her comment. "You're alive."

"No thanks to Aizen." He glanced at Yammy, whom he hadn't even bothered to contact since all of this started, but he didn't seem to understand this statement either.

"I take it you two haven't heard anything since the battle?"

"No." Yammy admitted. Grimmjow didn't bother explaining he'd gone to the world of the living. Halibel nodded and wordlessly they moved into the shade of the palace-within-a-palace Grimmjow recognized as where Halibel once resided with her fraccion.

They sat down, Nel dislodged from Grimmjow's leg finally and sat beside him, no one bothered to question it, the story was too important. Yammy scoffed at the deaths of their comrades, Grimmjow was silent and Halibel recounted it all with little emotion save when Aizen betrayed her. She was the only one of them who did not fall at the enemy's hands, and Grimmjow said as much, not out of praise for her so much as shame for himself and the other espada.

"So this is really it then? We're all that's left of the espada?" Grimmjow said when she concluded.

"It seems so, though I did not witness each death, I felt no other spiritual pressures when I awoke in the human world. I thought maybe Stark would survive, but I found no traces of him."

"Could the Soul Society have captured him or any of the others?"

"There is no way to know, really." She answered. "I only just managed to get to cover before passing out."

"So is that where you've been this whole time?" Grimmjow asked.

"No, I needed energy to heal. I've been in the Menos forest, feeding. When I got back here, I, like you, had expected more survivors, but it seems those who remained here were also destroyed."

"Yeah." Grimmjow related Nnoitra's death. Yammy told what he knew about Ulquiorra and his own lost battle. They both admitted the only reason either of them were alive was because the Soul Reapers had assumed them dead or found finishing them off to be too much trouble.

"You are luck they didn't capture you." Halibel said dismissively. Finally she looked to Nel. "So what is she doing here?"

"Nel is staying with Grimmjow until we find her brothers!" The child declared.

Grimmjow sighed. "No, you are not!"

"Why is she with you?" Halibel questioned further, and Grimmjow guessed she must be sensitive to the fact that Nel formerly held her own position. Grimmjow hadn't been around back then, and had never known Nel as an espada so he looked to her only as helpless child- though he knew her history.

"She uh..."

"Nel saved Grimmjow!" the girl announced, Halibel had no reaction while Yammy burst out laughing.

"Wow, Grimmjow, you really are weak!"

"Shut up, Yammy!"

Halibel looked at him over her high collar and surveyed the mess of scars on him after the battle. "Did she really save you?"

"I didn't ask her to." Was all he could find to say.

"How...amusing."

"Shut it." He rose. "You can have her if you think she's so great."

"No, it's not me who owes her my life. You can't abandon her now, Grimmjow, unless you want to abandon your honour."

"What?" he looked between Halibel and Nel wondering why she was defending the slobbering brat and wondered if it was just some way to torture him, but he just straightened and shrugged. "Whatever, the hell I care what she wants to do." He started moving out of the palace. Nel scrambling to follow.

"Where are you going?" Halibel asked, not trying to stop him, but wondering just where any of them were supposed to go now.

"I don't know, Halibel. What are we supposed to do?" He turned back to face her. "Yammy, any clue?" The giant shrugged. "Exactly, so I'm going back to mine, and I'm going to sleep." He stalked off with this, there really wasn't much else for them to do anyway, but this way, there seemed to be an agreement that they were all going to remain in Las Noches.

* * *

><p><strong>Present<strong>

"Grimmjow, are you not well?" the blue haired soldier went stiff at the cold voice before dropping to his knees.

"My lord. No, I am fine."

"Grimmjow," Grimmjow felt the swell of his twisted power all around him, intensifying when his hands came to rest on each of his shoulders, guiding him back up to his feet. That black shadow of a cape swirled behind him even in the still air of the hallway just beyond Halibel's cell. "I am pleased to see you know your place but I asked you if you were well, please speak freely."

"Yes sir. I am fine, I just have a headache, is all." He hadn't known he was being watched when he came out of her cell, clutching his head.

"Grimmjow, these things are important. You are my first re-born soldier, after-all, I must know if anything seems wrong. Now what did she say that upset you?" his voice was low and dangerous but cut with a false kindness that kept his subordinates always guessing as to what he truly wanted from them.

"She asked me if I was still her ally."

"And?"

"Of course I told her no, my lord."

"Good, but that wasn't what bothered you, was it?"

"She asked me about Nel."

"The little arrancar child?"

"Yes."

"And that is when you became upset."

"No...well, I just, got a headache, I don't feel anything for her anymore."

"Don't worry, Grimmjow, I trust you. When you stepped down off that table and denounced all your former allegiances, I believed you, and I believe you feel absolutely nothing for any of those people now. But if that changes, you must tell me at once. You understand that they are the enemy, correct? You realize you are fortunate to be permitted into my army."

"Yes, my lord," he dropped back to his knee, and bowed his head, exposing the deep wound at the base of his neck, "I know how fortunate I am. I promise I will tell you of any changes."

"Excellent." The shadow swept past him, leaving him shaken in its wake. Blue eyes watched the figure march away and then shifted back to the prison door.

"Arrancar child...why do I remember her so clearly...?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Hello again! So I am planning to update this one quickly both because I don't want readers to lose the flow and because it is working it's way down to the manga chapter 485ish, so I want to keep it relevant before the canon gets too far ahead! I just read chap 486 and I already can't wait for the next chapter!<strong>_

_**Also I tried to do some research on Nel and who she would have know as an espada-anyway, I wrote it that Grimmjow hadn't become an espada yet when she was around and hence never knew her as an adult and only sees her as a child for now. I don't know if that is brutally against the canonic history, but that's what I went with for this! **_

_**Look for more soon!**_

**_Riza_**


	3. Day Break Chap 3

**37 Days ago**

"I can't believe they would have kept it unguarded. It's been long enough that they should have noticed it." Grimmjow stood before the craterous hole int he side of Las Noches. He was frankly surprised to have gotten this close without being attacked. Nel leaned on his shoulder, staring into the dark.

"Maybe they are stupider than we thought."

"No, Halibel wouldn't have gotten caught if that was the case."

"But the fat one could have."

Grimmjow smirked at this, "Yeah, he could. Suppose we'll have to free him too if he's in there."

"But Grimmjow and Nel don't like him."

"Doesn't matter, we have to stick together, it's our only chance."

"See, that's why Nel stayed with you!"

"You don't count." he bit back but she didn't seem to mind.

"So are we going in?"

"How about this, you go on ahead and if you don't get killed, it's not a trap and I'll follow."

"Grimmjow is funny, huh."

He sighed, "yeah, hilarious. Let's go." but he didn't move forward into the hole, instead he went along the wall.

"Wait, where are we going?"

"That _has_ to be a trap, I've got another idea."

He took them down the wall a ways before leaping up into the sky and landing on the edge of the outer wall. The Dome loomed before them but he was looking elsewhere, to one of the four pillars.

"Where are we going?" Nel asked.

"Back to the control room if we can."

"The place with all the monitors?"

"Yeah, there's a chance they haven't found it, and then we'll be able to see what's happening."

Flashing forward a few more times, he chose a place in the wall and let a cero build. It wasn't that easy, but after a few more strikes it crumbled.

"This isn't the control room."

"No, it's further in, now be quiet, we don't know if this place is being watched." He moved swiftly through empty hallways, there wasn't much in this part of the palace except the control room and the meeting chambers, which gave him hope that the Vandenreich would have no interest and no reason to occupy this area. Las Notches was practically a city in itself, if they were careful, they would never even come onto the Vandenreich's radar.

"Here we go," He pushed the door open slowly, and then let out a breath finding the room empty. "Okay, looks like we're in the clear." He shut the door behind him, locking it and took a seat in the swivelling chair before the monitors. Nel jumped up onto the chair next to him.

"Woa, there's a lot of 'em." When Grimmjow didn't answer she looked back to him to find his jaw clenched.

"Shit..." it was true, the place was over run with soldiers in white- some with those hoods on, others in long trenches. "Is that..." he took note of one soldier in particular... "a hollow mask? Is he an arrancar?"

"Nel thinks so."

"So it's already started." He abandoned that screen to scroll through the others, concentrating on the cells until he found her.

"DAMN!" He swore loud, seeing the state of her. She was in her resurrection form, but many pieces of her bone coverings were missing or broken. He couldn't imagine how painful that must be. She hung in a torturous position, hands above her, leg pinned awkwardly behind her, her overly exposed body on sick display. He slammed his fist into the console the screen flickering in the aftermath.

"DAMN THEM!" He growled out, seeing red until small fingers closed over his wrist. He was panting, he'd gotten so angry, but then he saw her wide eyes and free hand pointing to a screen. "Nel...what is it?"

"That man..." On the screen was dark haired man, dressed like a general, but rough featured, unkempt hair. His uniform was white, but at the same time he seemed covered in an unnatural black shadow, hiding his face from clear sight and rippling behind him like a cape.

"He has to be the leader..." He said watching how everyone bowed to him. "Shadows..." Grimmjow watched him and turned back to a screen of hooded soldiers. "Even with those hoods, how are their faces always in shadow—like masks..."

"What does it mean?"

"I don't know, kid, but I'm thinking it will be in our best interest to stay in the light."

"You think their shadows can hurt us?"

"I don't know. We don't really know anything about them, even after all that time fighting them. So we just have to be careful."

He turned back to the screens of the cells, flicking through, searching for Yammy but it was Nel who spotted him.

"Yikes, he got even fatter!" She pointed and Grimmjow saw Yammy was also in his resurrection form. He was so large as such, that they had him chained in the desert. Grimmjow noted that he too was pierced in one leg by a large stake.

"What are they doing to them?" Grimmjow asked himself, examining the spike. "They're both at their maximum power...why would the Vandenreich want that?"

He thought it over for a long time, thinking about the information Nel had given him, he took a breath, coming to a conclusion. "They are harvesting their spiritual pressure."

"WHAT?"

"Has to be." he answered Nel. "Only reason they would want them in their resurrection forms. I think that spike is drawing their powers from them. But it's been so long now...how could their bodies sustain that?"

"Well they are more powerful than Grimmjow."

"Yeah but...hmm, they must just draw a little bit, I don't know, none of it makes sense." He stood up from the consoles.

"Where is Grimmjow going?"

"That way." He pointed at several screens quickly. "I haven't seen any patrols in those areas. I'll get Halibel first. We can come back for Yammy when she is strong enough."

"Ahh, but there are so many of them."

"Yeah well, just don't make any noise." He didn't even bother telling her to leave this time, he had his opening and had to move.

* * *

><p><strong>271 Days ago<strong>

"Dog! Dog! Oh there you are!" Nel let the small hollow jump up on her, his bone head knocking against her chin but she didn't mind, laughing in the sand under the domed sky. He leapt from her and began chasing her around.

"Endless tag!" She screamed, rushing past the gold-tiled palace, not noticing the woman who stood and watched her run by.

"Child!"

She stumbled to a halt, the dog yipping at her to keep going, "Where is Grimmjow?"

"Playing with Fatty."

This earned a soft sigh from Halibel and she left the small girl to continue her game with Yammy's pet. She jumped up onto the roof and saw the dust in the distance.

"Idiots." But there was nothing else to do in this desert so she found a perch and took up watching their fight as she usually did, though the outcome was almost always the same.

Grimmjow just did not have the strength to beat Yammy. His only chances were when he could outsmart the large espada. They were already well into it today, blood flying, neither caring. They could suffer any amount of wounds and take as long as they needed healing because there was nothing else they needed to do. They lived in a forgotten world, nothing to do, no purpose other than survival.

It had been several long months since the three of them had met up. Hope of others returning was long gone. Grimmjow had routed out a few old inhabitants of the palace like the privaron espada and other arrancars, but to no end other than just to see who was still there. They lived in the twisted sublevels or whatever area was their territory and there was no reason to bother or interact with them. So the three espada would simply gather here, out of unspoken loneliness and Grimmjow and Yammy would do the only thing they could think to do. Halibel would watch through critical eyes, and at the end of the fight would find some criticism, or rarely, advice, to give Grimmjow or Yammy.

Nel had become a fixture in their lives as well. Grimmjow told her every day to leave him alone but she never listened and he didn't do much more to get rid of her.

The dust settled, Halibel could see that both men had taken enough punishment for one day and they limped back toward her, seeking shade from the false sun.

"You leave your side open too much," she said to Grimmjow when she dropped down next to them. "If Yammy paid better attention to your moves, he would have noticed this and exploited it."

Grimmjow flicked blood from his sword and sheathed it. "Then fight me, Halibel. Fighting the same person over and over is boring."

"Yeah." Yammy agreed.

"I already told you I don't fight for pleasure."

"But what else is there to do?"

"Endless tag." She jibed and they could all hear Nel's screams and Dog's yips. Grimmjow smacked his palm on his forehead.

"Oh please, Halibel, don't joke, that game is driving me crazy!"

"Hey, I told you to keep her away from my pet!" Yammy said.

"Well the more time she's with that dog, the less time she's with us, so why don't you let them keep going." Grimmjow sat down, rubbing out a charley-horse starting in his calf.

"Whatever." Yammy dropped too, to look over his wounds. Halibel moved back toward the interior of the palace but paused looking back at them. Normally they would all go their separate ways after this and would spend the next hours or days in solitude until Grimmjow and Yammy decided to fight again. But today she paused and looked back at them.

"I'm making tea."

Both men watched her in surprise at the curt invitation to remain, and despite their natural hostilities to one another they both nodded their acceptance. They may not be friends, but their companionship was preferable to the long, empty days.

* * *

><p><strong>37 days ago<strong>

"Nel, I need you to do what I say from here on out, okay?" Grimmjow whispered in the dark hall. They were very close to Halibel's cell now.

She read his seriousness and nodded.

"Good." He picked her up and held her up as far as his arms could stretch and she saw why. There was an open gap in the wall, a small passage or ventilation shaft, too small for an espada but the right size for her. "Get in."She crawled into the space and looked down on him questioningly. "Stay there until I come back, okay?"

"Alright."

"Good." He crouched low now, and drew Pantera. He would have to fight past the guards and just had to hope that backup didn't come until they escaped.

He sprung into the lit hallway outside the door and sent a cero at one guard while swinging at the other. Their hoods fell away, he'd struck them both but they weren't quite out.

"It's the other espada!" The one he'd hit with his cero was hurting, but he recognized Grimmjow and was drawing out a weapon. Grimmjow sliced clear through his arm before he could ever draw his sword but then he caught the incantation from the other and spun just in time to counter a direct hit. It wasn't a sword, however, it was a strange, blue glowing weapon. He had been fighting them for so long now but he still didn't have a clear idea of who these beings were.

"What the hell are you people?" He grunted, Pantera straining against the strange weapon until he gave a heave and knocked the soldier back. He didn't hesitate before swinging down on him again. He felt hot energy rip past him, but it wasn't enough to stop him taking another swing. He finally incapacitated the guard, blood slicking his torso from the hits he'd taken but nothing worse than what he'd sustained in those many sparring matches with Yammy. The other guard lay unconscious from the loss of his arm. Grimmjow pushed the door open.

"Grimmjow!" He rushed over to Halibel, taking stock of her chains.

"I'll get you out."

"No, you idiot, run."

He glanced down at her, saw the desperation in her eyes and then everything started clicking into place. The control room left unsupervised: for him to see where she was. The hallways left intentionally open: a path leading him straight here. It was all a trap to get him here.

"That was easier than I thought." The cold voice washed over him. He hadn't heard it before but without looking away from Halibel he knew it had to be the shadow king.

Grimmjow gripped his zanpakuto tight, staring down at Halibel's pained features.

"You aren't going to try and fight me are you?" the man mocked but Grimmjow still raised his sword.

He swung.

Instead of turning and aiming for the enemy, however, he hit the chains keeping Halibel hung in that terrible position and snapped them. She collapsed forward, but instantly moved to try and pull the stake from her leg. Then, Grimmjow attacked the man.

"Fool."

Grimmjow didn't even see a weapon, but he found himself on the floor, Pantera across the room. Halibel screamed out, her foot finally free, and it was enough to get Grimmjow to push himself up again.

"Run Halibel!" He screamed at her, throwing himself into the man. But this time he was thrown straight back into her, still not sure where the man had struck him, he we so fast.

"Enough."

A crushing weight hit them. It was a spiritual pressure equal to Aizen's if not greater but laced with a foreign darkness much stronger than the ex-soul reaper's. Grimmjow was already blacking out. He saw the strain in Halibel's features as well.

"Shit." He muttered before he was taken under completely.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Hello again! I hope everyone is following the time jumps alright, it's the first time I've written one like this but I find it a really fun way to write as I try to pull all these little pieces together. More to come very soon!<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	4. Day Break Chap 4

**102 days ago**

"Get away from me." Grimmjow muttered, only half awake when he felt the presence move next to him but he quickly realized it wasn't Nel. "Oh, Halibel." He sat up in his bed, surprised to see her here since they always met in the domed desert over the past year. He glanced around, confirming it was barely morning.

"What's going on?"

"I felt a disturbance a few minutes ago. I think we should check it out."

"What?" He had woken too, but he hadn't known why. He shook off the rest of sleep and got up, knocking sake glasses over in the process. She noted the stink of alcohol in the air but said nothing- she was no one to judge how he managed this empty life they lead.

He grabbed his jacket and followed her down the hall, Nel stumbling behind them, having woken up herself at Halibel's intrusion.

"Yammy's already in the desert."

"What, why?" Grimmjow asked when they arrived at the control room.

"He said if there was any chance he might get to fight someone he was going."  
>"Idiot." Grimmjow groaned, taking a seat next to her to begin looking over screens and readings.<p>

"There," she said almost at once, stabbing a finger into a monitor of a scrolling line like a heart monitor.

"What is it?" Grimmjow wasn't afraid to admit he didn't know what half of this equipment did.

"A foreign party has entered Hueco Mundo."

"Soul Reaper?"

"It's..." She brought up more information on the reading after typing something into the computer. "Nothing we've ever encountered."  
>"What?"<p>

"It's headed this way, fast, we should join Yammy."

They got out to the desert as fast as they could but only to find Yammy yelling in anger at empty sands.

"Whoa, what is it?" Grimmjow asked the giant who very close to transforming into his Resurrection form.

"Bastard!"

"What, who?"

"I don't know! He just danced around here, not staying still long enough for me to hit him and then vanished."

"Did the intruder say anything?" Halibel asked.

"Just one thing."

"What?"

"He asked me if I had bankai."

"And?"

"He didn't wait for an answer and disappeared."

"Damn." She muttered.

"What?" Both men asked and Nel gripped Grimmjow's leg, feeling the collective swell of their anticipation.

Golden eyes narrowed, looking over her companions very seriously, "a scout."

* * *

><p><strong> 99 Days ago.<strong>

Grimmjow dropped onto his bed, just looking for a moment of peace in all the chaos. Halibel had started ordering them around at once after their encounter with the unknown being and for some reason he hadn't minded taking her orders. She'd sent them in different directions, first, looking for hints of more people. Nel had stayed clinging to his leg for most of it as he searched the desert for other spiritual pressure but never finding anything more. When he reported back, Halibel had already had more work for him- research. She had divided up stacks of books from Aizen's old quarters for them to go through to try to figure out what the being had been.

Now Grimmjow breathed on his bed, seeking out a bottle and popping the cork. He was fine with staying up for long periods of time, but searching through those books was mentally exhausting.

"What are Scouts?" Nel asked. She hadn't interfered this whole time but now that he was finally alone she had questions about the last few days. "Why are they so dangerous?"

"Not scouts, Nel. _A_ scout. It means he was here to find out what it's like and then he'll report back to someone. What it means, is that more are coming."

"More what?"

"We don't know, that's what we're trying to figure out." he stood up. "Now get away from me."

She smiled at the statement he shot at her every day because somewhere in the last year and more that they'd been together she'd decided it was a sign of affection. He just sighed, and left his room, leaving the bottle behind to return to his work.

* * *

><p><strong>22 Days ago.<strong>

"This was once an important room for you right?"

Grimmjow was still coming too. He'd been lying on a cell floor starving for two weeks. He hadn't expected to wake up here when he'd last fallen asleep.

His bare feet were just barely touching a cold surface beneath him, his arms stretch above him, taking most his weight. He tried to look up but a sharp pain struck the back of his neck and he was forced to keep his head bowed.

"Don't move, Grimmjow. I will explain."

The room started to come into focus, he saw the high-backed chairs and that table, who's surface he'd stared at in many long meetings. He was standing on the table in their old meeting room, and if he could have looked up straight, he would have see that he was facing Aizen's old chair. As it was, though, he couldn't see much but the table before him until the dark king moved into his field of view.

"What the Hell?" He asked, jerking in his chains but feeling something very sharp dig into his arms and he cried out at both the physical pain and a tug in his soul. He stilled in the shock of it.

"You can't see it, but I know you can feel it, Grimmjow. Between your arms is chained your zanpakuto. If you move, your own blade will cut into you. It's tip is aimed just above the top of your spine, so if you look up, it will cut into you."

Grimmjow growled in furry. "What is this?" He already felt the trickle of blood running down his arms and dripping onto his neck and bare back.

"This is my experiment, Girmmjow. At first, I didn't mind not capturing you, as you were the weakest of the three and I thought you less valuable. But instead it was you I really desired most, to test my new method of recruitment. I need to harness the power of the other two but, you... you I can live with losing if you don't survive."

"Asshole." Grimmjow's head shot up again without thinking and he felt the stabbing pain in his neck. His arms jerked in response, opening up more cuts and he felt Pantera's anguish at causing this pain to his master. He saw the pleased looked cross the king's features.

"You see, I am going to force your soul to shatter itself. As the cause of your pain, it will begin to crack, and then, when your zanpakuto fears that it will be the cause of your demise, it will destroy itself to save you. I will then have a blank slate with which to work. With no zanpakuto, you will no longer be an espada and I will be able to mold you into the perfect soldier. And if it works," he smiled darkly, "I am going to use the same method to convert every powerful Soul Reaper after I conquer the Seireitei."

"I'm not a Soul Reaper, idiot."

"The principle is the same. Your soul is just as weak as theirs and I will break it—what's his name, _Pantera?"_ He sneered.

His words sent that red rage through Grmimjow again and he screamed out in furry.

"YOU BASTARD!" Grimmjow yanked against his chains again and more blood rained down on him. He screamed once more, feeling the growing rent in his soul even more than the terrible wounds he was opening up in his arms. He was forced to stop and hold himself as still as possible, bowing his head once again but the skin on the back of his neck and head was already torn open.

"My, Grimmjow, my explanation was meant to warn you, not to get you to hasten the whole process. You must feel it, right? You must hear your other half screaming."

"Shut up! Pantera won't break, not like this." he growled out, wanting to meet the man's gaze, but unable to lift his head again. It truly was torture for his body, soul and his pride.

The shadow king chuckled before sweeping out of the room. "We'll see..."

* * *

><p><strong>Present.<strong>

Grimmjow accepted the list of names he was given and scanned them over.

"Is that all of the arrancars that were still inhabiting Las Noches?" the other soldier asked him.

"You missed one, in the maze on the third sub-level. She's tricky but should be no problem."

"Excellent work, Grimmjow." Their king strode in, everyone bowed until he told them to stand. He dismissed the others and placed a hand on his newest soldier's shoulder. "Now, I have more work for you."

"Yes, my lord."

"I want you to tell me everything you know about Aizen's plans to take over Soul Society."

"Of course. Anything you ask, my lord."

* * *

><p><strong>10 Days ago.<strong>

"Well I certainly did not expect you to last this long. I guess we're going to have to make this more unpleasant." The king spoke, looking up to the tortured man on the table. He was perfectly still, doing everything to keep his own blade from cutting him. He'd done well in the past twelve days. Even when the emperor had him whipped, the espada had remained as firm as possible. It had still succeeded to some extent, forcing his body to tense and flinch and scrape against his own blade. He could see the tears forming in the sixth's aura, but they were no where near as deep as he expected after so long.

"You don't want this to be quick." Grimmjow muttered weakly. "Otherwise you would have just run me through with Pantera."

"Well, I guess you are right. It is better to take this slow, so the damage to your soul runs deeper, but I am growing impatient." Grimmjow could see him now and he watched the shadowed man nod to someone he couldn't see. With a jolt he dropped to the table, his feet finally touching flat and taking his whole weight. It was one instant of relief before his chains dropped even lower, forcing his arms to bend against the blade and the tip to drive deep into his neck and back. He cried out before dropping lower, blood pouring down his neck and head and his soul screaming out in torment. His arms were straight again, but he was struggling to stabilize himself at this height. He was too high to kneel but too low to stand straight and if he tried to stand up again his blade would run down his skull and back. It was a cruel position and the king knew it.

"Things should move much more quickly now, thank you Grimmjow."

He listen to the man move out of the room, his head bent forward, flayed back exposed to the cold air. His legs shook in the effort to keep him stable, his feet slipping in his own blood that slicked the table all around him and he knew true despair.

* * *

><p><strong>92 Days ago<strong>

This time Grimmjow was awake when he felt them burst through the Garganta to their world. It was many souls. Nel came running up to him, her claw-like fingers wrapping in the leg of his hakama and he heard Yammy's dog yipping in fright back to it's master.

"Get off of me." Grimmjow shook his leg to no avail.

"Shit, are we going up to meet them?" Yammy asked but Halibel dropped next to them.

"No, the traps are set, let's see how they do."

They made their way to the control room. They'd prepared well, even holding a meeting with the arrancars and privaron espada left in the palace. All of Aizen's old traps were in place, it should take any intruder days just to reach the central desert under the dome. And once they got there, the three remaining espada were prepared to face them.

"Watch everything." Halibel said, "we need to learned everything we can about their tactics before they reach us."

"Feels like cheating," Yammy grumbled.

"It's survival." Halibel responded.

"They didn't send very many," Grimmjow commented, seeing the few that entered the main gates. But Halibel stiffened.

"What?"

"Don't use your eyes, Grimmjow." He caught her meaning and felt out with his spiritual pressure.

"SHIT!"

All around them a mass was growing, a solid wave of spiritual pressure. "They're coming at us from all sides," She announced.

"Then we go to the desert, meet them." Grimmjow said, rising.

"Maybe."

"That was the plan!" he urged.

The room shook, somewhere a wall was crumbling. These people weren't going to play Aizen's games, or theirs. They were just going to bust right in.

"The plan is ruined." Halibel announced. "We split up and take down the first wave as fast as possible then regroup here."

Another explosion hit, there was no time to argue and they ran their separate ways.

"WHAA!" Nel screamed as Grimmjow ran to battle with her stuck to his leg.

"Get away from me kid if you don't wanna get killed!" he grabbed the back of her cloak and ripped her off his leg. She dropped to the floor, ready to pounce back on him but the wall beside them exploded into powdered dust and she staggered behind the blue haired espada when he drew his sword to meet the enemy.

"Okay mystery freaks, let's see what ya got."

* * *

><p><strong>2 Days ago.<strong>

"...Nel.." head forced down as it was, her face filled his field of vision. Her small body shook, standing beneath him, her feet wet in his blood. Tears bloomed out of the corners of her eyes.

"Grimmjow" she sobbed out in sympathy for him, in despair. "I'll save you."

"...don't think you can this time, kid...go, to the human world...it's the only place you might make it."

"But Grimmjow..." She refused, looking past him for a way to reach his chains and free him but she was just too small. She shut her eyes and balled her tiny hands into fists.

"What are you doing?"

"If Nel could grow up, like Grimmjow always tells her too, Nel could reach his chains and free him."

"It's okay." His voice was foreign in it's gentle tones, "just go."

"But Ichigo can't see Nel!"

"Find Orihime...remember her?" Nel nodded. "She'll look after you."

"But Nel can't leave Grimmjow like this!"

"You have to."

"Ah...so the child finally emerges." The cold voice made them both jump. Grimmjow winced as his blade dug deep into him in so many places. The king smiled.

"You're very close Grimmjow, I can see your aura, I can see Pantera breaking. One more wrong move, one more drop of blood shed, and your soul will have no choice but to shatter."

The Vandenreich king took his time in crossing the chamber toward them. Nel turned and stood defensively before Grimmjow.

"Nel, go!" Grimmjow begged her.

"What an interesting pair you are. She's been watching you this entire time, you know, waiting for us to leave you alone. But poor thing is too small to do anything. I was just curious, to see what she would do, and how you would react. I must say, after all this time I thought you were a hardened warrior. I didn't expect you to be so soft."

"Nel, run!" He commanded her, ignoring the shadow king.

"NO!"

But one wave of the king's hand an his power washed over them. Nel stumbled back and fell shaking.

"Nel..." Grimmjow straightened himself as much as he could, the king was before them on the table, he heard the draw of his sword and saw the steel point at the younger arrancar's throat.

"I have no use for one so small and so weak."

"Nel, do what I said!" Grimmjow screamed, and though he knew what it would cost, though he had tasted the agony that was before him these long days, he somehow could not bring himself to watch her be cut down. And so he did the only thing he could.

He stood up.

Pantera slid along his wrists, his forearms, cutting to the bone. The tip drove deep into the top of his spine before raking down his bare bare, already lacerated by the whip. It cut through his blue hair, down to the bone of his skull.

And when he let out a mighty roar, and twisted his body so that he could swing out with a foot to kick the Vandenreich King, knock him back just enough so that his descending blade missed Nel- those final tears in his flesh rent his soul asunder.

Unable to suffer causing his master's death, Pantera destroyed himself to save Grimmjow. The tortured zanpakuto shattered in the chains that bound master and blade together, not into shards, but into silver whispers of dust that were blown away in the swell of power that left Grimmjow's body. And from him came a cry of primal pain, of loss too deep to be fathomed, to be contained- agony no man should ever endure or be able to survive. And so his mind broke with his soul, he collapsed on his knees before the dark god, empty, a vessel waiting to be filled with his malice, his deceit, his every command and desire.

And though the arrancar child had escaped through the Garganta in the chaos, the King smiled. Because everything that made the bloodied man before him Grimmjow Jaggerjaques, was gone.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Thanks for those who are keeping up with my version of the new story arc, looking forward to reading Kubo's next chapter tomorrow! And thanks for the reviews!<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	5. Day Break Chap 5

**70 Days ago**

Grimmjow collapsed back against the wall next to the three bodies. The white-garbed soldiers hadn't been that powerful, but he was exhausted. He'd been awake for at least ten days, his spiritual pressure was all that was sustaining him. A small figure dropped next to him.

"Grimmjow's hurt!" Nel moved toward the gash on his leg and he saw her reaching into her throat.

"Don't-" but she belched out hot liquid and though he made a disgusted noise he felt the healing properties flood into him. He just sat there and shut his eyes, knowing it was too dangerous to fall asleep here but so tempted to just let go.

"Heh, going to make this easy for me then?"

Blue eyes shot open but the sword was already at his throat. Nel made a startled noise and cowered next to him.

This one was big, he had the same white hood as the others but he pulled it off to reveal his white-double breasted trench coat and black combat boots. This one, at least, didn't seem to have one of those cross-things on his wrist but neither did he see a mask or hollow hole. After all these days of fighting, he still couldn't figure out what these people were.

"Tell me, arrancar, do you have bankai?" The enemy asked.

"Screw you."

Though he knew it was useless, he reached for Pantera. The man moved forward to strike but instead of feeling pain a dead weight simply dropped on him and he was staring down at his attacker's dead body.

"You dropped your guard." Halibel said, flicking the blood from her blade.

"No kidding." He groaned as he stood up, his leg barely taking his weight. "I didn't think I was going to see you again."

"Yes, well I am surprised you have survived this long."

"Hey." He shot but he was too tired to fight with her.

"You need rest."

"No shit, but I can still feel them searching for us."

He stumbled when he took his next step and she caught his arm. "We stick together from now on." She instructed. "Yammy is one floor down. We'll regroup and take turns resting while we figure out what to do next."

He didn't argue. It had been three weeks of constant running and fighting in the palace. Though the invaders had broken in much faster than the espada had first intended, the large and confusing layout of the building gave them a huge advantage and was the only reason they hadn't been captured yet.

Grimmjow let himself be lead down stairs and through twisting corridors. He could see Yammy was a little worse for wear as well but his massive spiritual pressure would uphold him for some time yet.

They were in Szayel's old lab, he thought, a place full of traps not even they knew about but it was as safe as anywhere else in this place, so when she said she'd take first watch he didn't hesitate to shut his eyes and give himself over to the darkness.

* * *

><p><strong>1 Day ago<strong>

Nel shivered in the living world, hovering on the top of a building feeling many souls but not able to distinguish the one Grimmjow had told her to find. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't rid the images of his tortured form from her mind. She should have acted sooner she told herself, she should have attacked them the very first day she'd seen them chain him up in that room. From her perch in the ventilation shafts that seemed to run all through that area of Las Noches, she had seen much of the Vandenreich's activities. But that information was worth nothing if she was trapped in this horrible world with no friends.

She began to sob, her wails lost to the ears of the living, until she felt a flare of power and her heart skipped. That familiar, powerful riatsu she'd thought gone, that shinigami power she had learned to trust and love rather than fear.

"I...ICHIGO!:

She burst into the air, forgetting every fear of this world and saw the black figure in the distance.

"WHAA!"  
>The teen soul reaper heard the cry far above him and stopped dead in the air.<p>

"N-Nel?"

Too elated to slow herself down, the child arrancar only increased her speed to reach him faster.

"Super Speed!" She slammed into him full force and they didn't stop until they stuck the ground.

"Y-you show up after such a long time to do this...? Ichigo sputtered.

"I-Ichigo...help me Ichigo!" She murmured into his chest and he felt the seriousness. "Hueco Mundo is...Heuco Mundo is..." She burst into tears and he sat up, holding her against him but feeling the urgency of hearing the rest of her news.

"What, what happened in Hueco Mundo, Nel?"

"They've taken it!" She wailed against him. "And captured them!"

"Who? Nel, please calm down and explain." But her hysteric were getting the best of her. He caught the name Vandenreich and then he tensed hearing her sob out Grimmjow's name.

"Nel." He forced her back to look at him straight on, "You have to tell me what's going on."

* * *

><p><strong>Present- Hueco Mundo<strong>

"What's going on?" Halibel asked as she was hauled up to her feet for the first time since her capture. Grimmjow supervised the others who took hold of her chains and her arms. Her legs couldn't quite support her and she was forced to lean heavily on the soldiers.

"Yammy's power will be enough to make new arrancars." Grimmjow explained, leading them out of the room. "You can serve our lord in a different way." She was lead away from the cells to the espada meeting room. Her eyes widened seeing the stains on the table and the distinct darkness left in this room after what had happened here just two days ago. She looked to Grimmjow.

"Grimmjow, is this where they turned you?"

"Like I said, there was nothing to turn. I was liberated, and now that we know it was a success, we're going to free you too."

"Free me of what?"

"Your Zanpakuto and your false loyalties."

She was hauled up onto the table, the stink of his blood wafted up to her.

"Grimmjow, don't do this!" She wasn't one to beg, but if they broke her like they did him, it was all over, they would be with the Vandenreich until they died. "Grimmjow, I know you still remember Nel! I think you still remember me! Stop this now!"

He leaped up onto the table. They'd already gotten her hands above her head but he pushed the other soldiers aside. His blue gaze met her own.

"Grimmjow...?"

"Get our Lord." Grimmjow called to the others. "We can't do anything until she leaves her Resurrection form."

He gave her another cold look before jumping off the table again.

"Grimmjow wait." He paused, the others filing out ahead of him, "is this all your blood?"

He looked over the table, the chairs near the centre and the floor also stained brownish red. She knew it was his, but she was trying to make him recall the torture, evoke some sort of reaction in her former ally.

"You are strong," was his answer, "You will also survive it."

"They took Pantera from you!" She screamed when he started to turn his back on her. "They've made you their pawn!"

"It should be quicker for you." He said back lowly, ignoring her pleas. "You have been severely weakened already, so don't be afraid, you won't suffer long."

The door clanked shut.

* * *

><p><strong>58 days ago <strong>

"We've lost." Halibel spat out when they felt the new spiritual pressure closing in. "Time for us to go."

"Go where?" Yammy demanded, angry at her for giving up; angry at himself for being so tired and angry at these beings that had chased them for weeks in their own home and they still had learned next to nothing about them.

"Anywhere." Grimmjow wheezed. He was the most beat-up of the three- though nothing debilitating. Nel clung close, he was barely aware of her presence now, the last weeks were a blur of exhaustion and battles and only now and then did he hear her voice or become aware of her fingers digging tight in his torn uniform.

"We move as one." Halibel instructed. They had taken shelter in the remains of her home. The ceiling of the dome sky was spotted with holes from where the invaders had broken in. "Through that opening there," she pointed to one of the smaller ones. "On three."

They all tensed, a roll of massive spiritual pressure flooding the area.

"One, two, thr-"

Chunks of marble were flying past. Girmmjow could see nothing in the devastation. Something struck him, he flew far across the desert, crashing into another building or structure. More explosions sounded, he managed to get back up, looking around for the others but seeing no one, only feeling the oncoming force of the invaders and so he had little choice. He ran.

He was prepared to jump for the ceiling, follow the plan, but then he heard her scream.

"Halibel!" He turned to see a tide of water washing over the dry land. But its force faltered and died and he stared, watching her fall, not sure what had struck her. "Bastards!" He shot forward, he would grab her and go, make a break for the desert and get somewhere safe until it was all over. But as he was closing in, her green eyes flared wide and her canon arm rose, aiming straight for him.

"Idiot." Just before the force of her water struck, he felt overwhelming darkness closing over his soul and caught a glimpse of a man in a white uniform but cast in dark shadow that swirled all around him.

Then he was flying through space, halfway to his destination before he realized what she'd done. When he collected himself, he saw her far below, slumping to the earth, the terrifying being standing above her. And then spirits were converging on him and he had no other choice than to turn his back on the scene and shoot through the ceiling into the perpetual night.

* * *

><p><strong>Present- World of the Living<strong>

"How is Nel doing?" Rukia asked a tired Ichigo when he shut his bedroom door on the sleeping arrancar girl.

"Not great. I think she's traumatized." He sighed, "She's been crying about him non-stop."

"Grimmjow?" They were still trying to come to terms with that particular relationship. What Nel had told them about the remaining three espada teaming up made sense in terms of survival, but they saw no reason for the gruff and violent sixth espada to show Nel any mercy.

"She says they became friends after she saved his life. And they..." He looked back at his bedroom door.

"What is it, Ichigo?"

"She said they came to see me after the battle with Aizen. She said he agreed to bring her because he owed her but when they got here I couldn't see them."

"What?"

"I remember that night. I mean, I had no idea it was them, but one night, not long after the battle with Aizen, I woke up suddenly and I felt like I'd been struck by something. Actually, I always kind of thought it was you."

"Ichigo, I don't make it a habit of jumping on humans when they sleep."

"I know, I just thought...maybe you were checking on me."  
>She went quiet, her deep eyes showing several emotions. "I wanted to see you, Ichigo, but we weren't to interfere in your life. Not until everything that happened with the Fullbringers anyway."<p>

"Yeah, I know."

"Ichigo, is there anything else she's said that you haven't reported to us?"

"No. Just more about Grimmjow."

"Alright. We only have four days left."

"Rukia, do you really think these Vandenreich guys can beat the Soul Reapers?"

She gave a sad sigh. "I don't know. You heard from the other two about the vice captain of the First."

"Yes."

"And so many others were wounded and killed in so short a time. I...I'm worried, Ichigo."

They moved down the stairs to the kitchen. Isshin and Yuzu were at one of Karin's soccer games, it was early evening but the close of a precious day when they only had four until the Vandenreich attacked.

"What are you thinking, Ichigo?" She was watching him lean against the window, staring up at the starry night. But even in his faint reflection on the the glass's surface, she could see what was boiling in his brown eyes. "Don't you dare, Ichigo. They killed more than a hundred Soul Reapers yesterday!"

"Yeah, and after tonight, there are only three days left. Maybe I could do something to prevent any more people from dying."

"No, Ichigo, you will just get killed. We did not give you your powers backs for you to act so recklessly and stupidly. What would happen to your sisters if you ran off and got killed? To your dad, Orihime, our friends? What about that little girl up there on your bed?"

"Nel wants me to go save Grimmjow."

He turned to face her just waiting for whatever reprimand she could come up with but he was surprised to see her covering her mouth with one hand.

"Ichigo..." she was shaking. "You can't seriously be considering it! Promise me you won't go. Swear to me now!"

"No, Rukia, I can't."

Her eyes narrowed. "Carriage of thunder,"

"What?"

"Bridge of a spinning wheel."

"Rukia, I don't understand what you're saying."

She raised her arms "With light divide this into six!" Six thin beams of bright light struck him before he could react. In his human form, he couldn't easily escape the kido spell.

"Rukia, what are you doing?" has strained out, pinned by the bands of light that immobilized him.

"Saving your life." She raised her hand again. White light engulfed him and he fell unconscious to the floor.

* * *

><p><strong>Present- Hueco Mundo<strong>

Her curses and hollers of rage faded, the room around Grimmjow grew dark. Someone grabbed him when he started to fall.

"Soldier!"

His eyes snapped open, he saw Halibel in her chains, blood already coursing down her arms from her zanpakuto. Someone brushed the other soldier off of him and he felt that dark shadow fall over him.

"Grimmjow?" He focused on the king's face but couldn't speak, feeling faint again. The Vandenreich king saw the wound on his neck, still so deep and not yet healed.

"Take him back to the healers." He ordered the others. Grimmjow had only been released from their care this morning and since then he'd been worked hard. Though their healing techniques far surpassed those of the Soul Reapers or Aizen's healers, it would take time for Grimmjow to recover from such extensive damage and blood loss- not to mention the loss of his soul.

For the king, it had been a glorious feeling, when Grimmjow had dropped to his knees before him two days earlier, and he had seen in his eyes such emptiness, a blank mind waiting to be moulded. All he'd had to do was explain to Grimmjow his truth, tell him to be loyal and forget all others, and he had. He had obeyed every order since. The perfect soldier had been born. And now he would gain another.

Grimmjow was taken out of the room by the others, the king took a few steps but turned before leaving and smiled up to the woman on the table, "I can't wait for your rebirth, Halibel."

* * *

><p><strong>42 Days ago<strong>

Grimmjow struggled forward, using branches to support himself. Everywhere were bodies- Menos, Vastal Lordes- any hollow who's power was lesser than his own had dropped instantly when the green mist had rained down on them and seeped into their lungs, their skin, stung their eyes and made them spew blood. He could feel the poison wreaking havoc in his own body, and he just had to hope his spiritual pressure would push it out before his organs started shutting down.

He collapsed at the base of a tree. How many days since he'd escaped to the nocturnal desert? How many days since he'd looked down at his leg and realized she was actually gone: the arrancar child he'd told every day for five-hundred days to leave him alone? How long had he been running on no sleep, no food, no hope of saving his allies or even escaping himself?

He shut his eyes on the dark forest, on the world that was filled with nothing but pain any more. He was hunted, he was hurt and he was alone. He had no will to ever rise again.

"WHAAAAA!"

The shrill cry went through him like an electric shock and out of sheer habit he cried out for her to shut-up before it ever fully registered who it was.

"Gri-GRIMMJOW!"

"I said...shut up..." he covered his shock at seeing her alive again and watched her move closer to him, gripping his torn pant leg and he didn't tell her to let go or get away because right now, when the air seemed so thin and his body felt like it was burning from the inside out, it was a familiar feeling he could hold onto, a comfort he didn't want to shake off.

She questioned him about his escape and he about hers, but none of that was really important now. A moment ago he had been ready to let go, but now, though it shot pain through his gut, though his body screamed at him not too, he grabbed a branch and pulled himself up. Because now he had a reason to keep moving.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Hey all, another chapter from me and yesterday I read the latest from Kubo! Won't say anymore in case you haven't read it yet!<strong>_

**_I hope you are following the time jumping alright, but in case you didn't catch it, this chapter ended with the begining of the first chapter. Also, I took the word-for-word lines used by the fan translation of chapter 485 in the manga when Ichigo meets Nel so thanks to Manga1 Scanlations on !_**

**_And thanks to you for your reviews!_**

**_Riza_**


	6. Day Break Chap 6

_**Hello! Okay, so since it all looped back to "42 days ago" last time, I am now done time jumping. I am, however, keeping track of the countdown to the Vandenreich attack on Soul Society as you will notice in this chapter but it is chronological from here on out!**_

* * *

><p><strong>Present- Hueco Mundo- Three Days remaining until the attack on Soul Society.<strong>

Sheets flew up in a violent fury and the patient woke feeling a horror and dread deeper than anything he ever imagined possible. He tried to breath but the air was cold and thin and the dark room around him spun uncontrollably. He felt his nakedness—his body was clothed but his spirit torn wide open, it felt like he'd been cut in half, and his mind couldn't cope with the loss, the agony. He felt that moment he'd been torn in two, and it wouldn't leave, it wouldn't stop playing over and over in his head. And before that he couldn't remember anything but pain. He felt chains, he smelt blood, but nothing beyond that, no memories of what his zanpakuto's name was, what it had felt to be one. He could see faces and names, but felt nothing, no emotions with these memories.

"What...how..." the room stilled enough for him to rise.

_"Shhh, Grimmjow."_ the dark voice rippled in his head and fell back into the wall recoiling from it. No one was here, he was alone, but it was inside of him, gripping him. _"Remember, you were saved."_

He saw himself on the table in the meeting room, he saw his own blood and he saw that dark framed face, smiling down on him, and he knew he had been saved.

"That's right," he calmed himself, standing up again, the panic receding. He tried to let it all slip away, but as he moved away from the wall, his pant leg snagged on a piece of equipment, tugging tight and for a single second he could see her face staring up at him, hear her shrieking laugh or mournful howls and more than anything feel her tiny fingers wrapped in his hakama in fear, or anger, comfort, or love.

And even though the memory was already starting to slip away, so was that darkness the shadow king had wrapped him in.

* * *

><p><strong>Three Days remaining- World of the Living<strong>

"You can't seriously plan to keep me tied up in my own home."

"Shut up." Renji stood above the teen, hands on hips and sour look on his face. "I should be preparing for the attack with my squad but now I gotta babysit you because you're such an ass."

"Then let me go." Ichigo said from his bed where the many bindings on his body glowed.

"Nope, orders." The lieutenant sat back on Ichigo's chair at his desk and let out a lengthy sigh. "This sucks."

"Don't you think we should be doing something instead of just waiting?"

"That's not for us to decide."

"That's not how you felt last time."

"We were rescuing Orihime. This is different."

"No it's not!"A piercing voice chimed in, bursting through the door, Rukia right behind the excited child. "This time Ichigo has to rescue Grimmjow!"

Renji just stared at her and Ichigo sighed having heard this several times already.

"Sorry, Nel, I don't think that's going to happen."

Her features scrunched up and the tears began. "WHAAA!" Renji covered his ears as her shrill sobs filled the room.

"Ichigo, why did you do that!" He hollered over the girl but he already knew it was to punish himself and Rukia. The female Soul Reaper set her hand on the child's head and tried to get her to stop.

She quieted down some after a few minutes.

"Hey, when did she stop talking with a lisp?" Renji asked.

"I asked her the same thing," Ichigo answered, "She said it annoyed Grimmjow so she got rid of it."  
>"Geeze, that guy, I don't get it."<p>

"I can't say I do either." Nel had talked alot about Grimmjow and had told them what she knew of the Vandenreich but he knew there was still so much she hadn't said, like exactly what had happened right before she arrived. She kept telling them Grimmjow needed to be rescued but she didn't say just what they'd been doing to him.

"Do you feel better now?" Rukia asked when Nel's noises subdued to mere sniffles.

"Yes, Nel knows what she has to do now."

"Do? What is it, Nel?"

"Nel is going back to Hueco Mundo, and she is going to save Grimmjow herself!"

"Nel, you can't." Rukia said softly.

"Well if nasty shinigami won't do it, who else will? Who else will help Grimmjow get his soul back?"  
>They all stiffened at this. Ichigo sat up as much as his bindings would allow. "Nel...what does that mean? What happened to his soul?"<p>

Her bottom lip trembled, the water was rising up in her round eyes again. "that man...Nel was hiding for so long, waiting to rescue Grimmjow. He told Nel to stay there and Nel did, but there were other tunnels and she followed the noises to that room where they were hurting him..." they all listened in stunned silence to her description of what the king of the Vandenreich had done to the sixth espada. When Nel related his words that he planned to do this to the Soul Reapers, Renji at once pulled out his soul pager to relay this information.

And then she explained her escape.

"Nel tried to save him." she wept out, new sobs taking her, "but Nel was stupid and it was a trap. The dark man tried to kill Nel and Grimmjow," she sniffed deep, "Grimmjow saved Nel!" She wailed and broke into terrible sobs. Rukia held her gently but they needed to know the end of her story.

"He saved you, that's good, isn't it Nel?" She prompted.

"NO!" She shook her head. "Because he broke it, he broke his sword and Nel felt it. Nel saw it disappear and then Nel ran away! Nel was so scared she ran away!"

"Shhh." Rukia pulled her back into a hug. "You did what Grimmjow wanted, it's okay."

But there was a sudden flare of spiritual pressure and Rukia found herself on the floor. "NO!" the arrancar child screamed.

"Renji stop her!" Ichigo cried form his bed but even as the red headed lieutenant made a grab for her the window above Ichigo smashed and the crying child was gone. Renji leaped past Ichigo but stopped at the sill.

"What are you doing, go after her!" The human demanded.

"I can't..." the lieutenant breathed, "she already went through the Garganta."

* * *

><p><strong>Three Days Remaining- Hueco Mundo<strong>

Grimmjow sat in silence while the medical staff went over his condition with their lord. They'd worked hard to bind up the wound at the base of his neck and replenish his strength. They said something about how long the process of turning him had taken and despite their healing what tolls that might have taken on his body. He couldn't really remember how long he'd been on the table, the whole memory was unclear like everything else before the moment he'd sworn loyalty to the Vandenreich.

When they said he was cleared to leave, he stood up to go with the king but passed by a mirror. There was no hiding his reaction when he jumped in surprise at seeing himself.

"Grimmjow, what is it?" The king asked, seeing azure eyes wide and taking himself in. It was true, he had gone through a dramatic physical change, having lost so much weight in those twenty days, not to mention all the scars on him now. But the shadow king got the impression that that was not what had startled him.

"Is that...me?" Grimmjow almost whispered.

"Yes, Grimmjow, did you forget what you looked like?"

"I uh..." It was clear Grimmjow was seeing himself for the first time.

"Interesting, he lost all sense of self image, it would seem, when he turned. Make a note of it." The king ordered the medical staff and then lay a hand on his newest soldier's shoulder. "Come Grimmjow, it's okay. Come with me, we have work to do."

"...yes sir." Grimmjow slowly tore his eyes from the mirror and followed after his king. They went straight to a meeting- not in the old meeting hall since it had found another purpose- but in Aizen's old throne room. It was more appropriate, really, since there were many more than ten in attendance.

Grimmjow had been instructed to stand off to one side, behind the king and to observe and listen. It was his first time seeing the masses of his army—though this was still only his highest ranking soldiers. There were many different faces in the crowd, many different types of spiritual pressure and he wondered where they were all from. He himself had converted, so he guessed they were all beings who had chosen to be loyal to the Vandenreich, but he couldn't be sure.

They discussed the invasion plan, which, to his surprise, the king announced their newest soldier, Grimmjow, would be joining them. Their leader then used this as a segue to introduce Grimmjow- the first re-born soldier. Everyone seemed to know what this mean and a reaction went through the crowd and then the King stood and proclaimed how glorious it would be when the likes of Yamamoto of the Gotei Thirteen also bowed down to him and told him every last secret the shinigami had to hide.

The meeting ended, Grimmjow was excused. He started walking down the hall, not thinking where he was going, the meeting running through his head over and over. He knew their plans, he knew they were going to convert the Soul Reapers, and he knew he had converted, but...he kept thinking about Halibel, and trying to remember what he himself had endured. He had fought, but now he couldn't remember why. He sighed long and came to a halt outside a room. For a long moment he didn't know where he had wandered, he was far from the main base of operations of the Vandenreich, but then he pushed the door open.

It was his old room, where he'd still come even after Aizen's defeat. How had he forgotten that? He looked at his bed, there were still bottles of sake all around it. And in the corner was a pile of blankets and pillow far too small to be of any use to him. Nel. Her image came and went in a flash but the feelings that came with it lasted longer. He spun around, suddenly feeling cold and exposed. What was he doing? Why had he let them do this to him? Why wasn't he fighting them? He reached to his side and felt nothing where his zanpakutp should be.

Just like when he'd woken in the night, the memories of that moment struck him like a physical force and he suddenly trying to shut them out at any cost- forget, even if it meant losing himself. But he fell next to those ruffled blankets and he could see her, he could remember her and he could remember Halibel and Yammy and even that damn dog.

"They were my allies." He said to the empty room. His body and mind were numb. It wasn't that those memories had stirred emotions, he simply felt emptiness. But in this moment he knew exactly why he felt that emptiness.

The table.

The chains.

The sword and the blood.

But most of all that dark cloaked figured watching him day by day as he destroyed him.

He had to move now, before he lost his sight of the truth again. He was in a borderland between the mental breakdown of understanding what had actually happened to him and the that numb existence that allowed him relief but made him a mindless soldier. He didn't know how long this clarity would last, he had to act.

* * *

><p>Halibel jerked at the sound of the door banging open so violently and it caused more blood to spill down on the table around her. She swore under her breath and waited for the intruder to make himself known.<p>

"Hal..Halibel!" She felt the vibrations in the table when he jumped up raced over to her.

"Grimmjow!" She couldn't look up to see him but that voice was definitely his. "You remember?"

"I don't know for how long." He had no sword to cut her down with and thinking of this and seeing her caused him to feel the terrible pain inside him again. He staggered back from her, gabbing his head.

"GRIMMJOW!"

"I can't...how...tell me what to do before I lose it."

"Just rip them down, Grimmjow, it doesn't matter, my zanpakuto is still strong, it won't shatter."

"Okay." He braced himself, trying to keep his grip and jumped up, striking the chains where they connected with the ceiling. His fingers were still sharp, he was strong enough to do this at least. She cried out when the chains fell and their weight dragged her sword down her back. But he caught the sword before it fell further and broke the chains that held it against her tanned skin. She fell on the table before him and he let her zanpakuto drop, taking a few steps back.

"Grimmjow, stay with me." She said behind her mask, struggling to pick her blade up with her wounded hands.

"I..." he shook his head. "Right, come here." He put his arm under hers and helped her up. She was struggling so he put his another arm around her waist as well and got her off the table. "I can't focus..." the battle in his mind was too much and he came to a dead stop.

"Just keep going forward, I'll tell you what to do."

"Okay." He took them toward the door, but before he could reach the handle it opened.

"Fell for the same trick twice, Grimmjow, shame on you. This is just pathetic."

Seeing the king before him and back in that dark presence he was completely frozen. The king saw the transformation coming over him.

"That's right Grimmjow, what _are _you doing?" He said, prompting the obedient soldier he'd created to take back control.

The light in his blue eyes faded. Grimmjow looked sideways at the blonde espada in his grasp and she felt his hands tighten around her.

"Grimmjow don't listen to him."

"She's a witch, Grimmjow, she wants you under her spell, but we liberated you, remember?"

The hands supporting her were suddenly gone and Grimmjow let her drop, recoiling as if repulsed by her.

"My lord, I'm sorry," he clutched his head, "I...I am confused."

"Yes, you are, we will have to fix that won't we?" But he was leering down at Halibel. "I can see what you are thinking, don't even try it."

But there was no bone in her body that would let her go down without a fight. She rose, despite all the pains in her body, the toll her spirit had taken in the last weeks, and pointed her zanpakuto at him.

"Grimmjow, remember Pantera, remember what he took from you. Remember Yammy, and me, and remember Nel."

"The arrancar-child." he said at once, his voice in that dead tone but his eyes flashing like he did remember.

"Grimmjow!" the king cursed, Halibel flashed forward and he ignored the broken arrancar behind him to face the woman.

"You already know you cannot defeat me."

Grimmjow stood watching them. Halibel was struck, she was no match for this creature. Her thin form struck that table, already blood-slicked hands slipping across it's crimson surface. Grimmjow watched the king grab a fistful of yellow hair, drag her back as painfully as possible.

The slap of flesh, she rolled on the ground, barely able to push herself back to a sitting position. The King raised his sword above her.

_"Nel run!"_

_ "No!"_

_ The sword was raising against the child. _

_ "Nel do what I said!"_

Moments of time were blending as one. The broken man stood transfixed, seeing one moment the child on the table, himself in ruins above her, and the next watching Halibel struggle to lift her sword to defend herself.

"The garganta." He finally said, thoughts churning out as slow as his hand rose in the air. Halibel was on her feet, but the sword fell against her own an she was too weak to hold back the impact. She stumbled back but instead of striking that table again she was falling through empty air, dark cracks consuming her and neither she nor the king understood what had happened until she was gone.

The king stood breathing hard in his anger, finally registering Grimmjow still standing there, hand just now dropping, eyes distant, revealing no emotion at what he'd just done.

"Bastard." Grimmjow collapsed at the blow. "Getting her back is going to be messy."

* * *

><p>The moment Renji finished undoing the bindings Ichigo dropped his body and moved to Soul Reaper form.<p>

"I'll go with you." Renji said guiltily.

"No, this will get you in enough trouble as it is."

"It's my fault, I should have stopped her." Ichigo had screamed at him to let him go after Nel vanished and he had finally relented. Before, Ichigo had wanted to bust into Hueco Mundo on the remote chance he could improve the situation before the attack, but now it was for a friend, and even Renji couldn't deny that though very strange, Nel had been their ally in Hueco Mundo and they could not abandon her now.

"Would you two stop arguing," Rukia said, jumping to the window. "Let's go."

They were headed to Urahara's in hopes that he could send them through immediately but the all stopped when they felt the dark ripple in the sky.

"The Garganta!" Rukia exclaimed.

"Is Nel coming back?" Ichigo asked hopeful, but saw Renji stiffen.

"Espada." He growled and shot forward to intercept.

But when he found the third, blood-covered and free-falling through the sky, he lowered Zabimaru and out of instinct, caught her before she struck earth.

"Renji, that's... Halibel, the third espada." Rukia gasped out when she caught up to him.

"I don't get it." Ichigo muttered, "what happened?"

Halibel suddenly jolted in Renji's grasp and he jerked back when her sword swung close. When she rolled out of his hold, however, she wasn't able to rise from hands and knees and they saw the deep gouges in her back, her arms and wrists and the back of her hair was matted in dark crimson.

"That bastard." She moaned behind her mask, they could hear her gasping for air, she was in rough shape.

"What happened?" Ichigo asked, kneeling before her. "How did you get back here?"

"Grimmjow...he saved me." She gripped her zanpakuto and rose. For a moment they thought she was going to open a Garganta right there, but she swayed where she stood and Ichigo just moved in time to catch her. Her eyes were shut, she was unconscious.

"Damn..."

* * *

><p>"There." The king withdrew his hand form the arrancar's blue hair. "Get up." Girmmjow did, looking around the room and trying to figure out what he was doing here.<p>

"My lord?"

"I am afraid you had a relapse, Grimmjow, you betrayed me." Grimmjow sputtered to make an apology but the man held up a hand telling him to stop. "You understand how important you are, Grimmjow- I need to know if your conversion is a success before I attempt it on others more powerful than yourself. You _must_ tell me if you start to get confused."

"Yes, of course, my lord. What would you like me to do?"

"I want to run more tests, come with me."

He wrapped a hand around Grimmjow's arm and half drug him down the halls to the medical wing. Grimmjow followed after, still trying to figure out what he had just done and how he had betrayed his master. He was practically flung into a chair and the dark lord called on all his staff.

He threw questions at them and demanded answers. He examined Grimmjow's aura himself, and said he didn't understand how he could have helped Halibel if those feelings were tied to his life before, and the part of his brain that had broken with his soul. No one could give him the answers he wanted, he began to get angry and violent.

"Test, I need a test of his loyalty." He looked around the room and found the most useless of the staff. "Kill her Grimmjow."

Grimmjow looked down at the trembling girl with cold eyes. "How would you like me to do it, my lord?"

"Show me a cero."

The girl in his arms shook. "No, please." She begged both he lord and the ex-espada before her. But the king released her, and everyone stepped back when the red light shot out from Grimmjow's palm. It burn hot through the middle of the lab, destroying equipment and tearing a hole in the far wall, but everyone was looking to the pile of ash on the floor where the medic had stood.

Grimmjow felt himself yanked forward but just stood there in his commander's grip. "How did it feel?" He asked, starring into his eyes.

"I felt nothing." Grimmjow answered sincerely, wondering what he was supposed to have felt.

"Good. But I want to see one more test. I want you to go down in that desert and kill Yammy."

"Yes, my lord." He let Grimmjow go and watched him walk out of the room. Soldiers had come wondering what had happened and when they heard their master's orders there was confusion.

"My lord, I thought we needed the espda's power."

"Shut up." The king commanded, following after Grimmjow, "I won't let it him kill him, but I want to see him try, I need to know he would do it."

Grimmjow came to a stop ahead of them, not having overheard but glancing back to see if the king was following.

"You don't need me to go with you," his lord said evenly, "I trust you can handle this."

"Yes, my lord." They watched the blue haired soldier leave.  
>"You," the king grabbed the nearest soldier, "Stop him before he kills Yammy but don't let yourself be seen until that moment."<p>

"Yes sir." the king waved the others off and strode to the control room Grimmjow had so kindly showed them. "Okay, Grimmjow, show me how deep your loyalty lies."

* * *

><p>Grimmjow was halfway across the desert, Yammy not even in sight yet, but a noise stopped him. An insistent yipping.<p>

"Dog." He saw the little skull head attached to the hollow body. He had vague memories of it but it made no difference and he continued walking, ignoring it's yelps. That was, until he heard something else.

"What is it, Dog? Did you find something...Gr..GRIMMJOW!" A force struck him before he could react. He stared down at the green lump attached to his leg.

"What are you doing?" He asked the lump but a loud wailing came out of her and she kept repeating his name and her own for some reason.

"Nel got lost trying to save you!" She wailed, "But she found the desert and remembered where she used to play with Dog. She thought Grimmjow might remember too and he did because here he is!"

"Get off of me." He said shaking his leg but she only clung on tighter. Those small hands pressed into him made his movements slow. His next command for her to let go died on his lips and he just stood there staring down at the broken mask on the top of her head. When she felt this she looked up to him again, scared face wet with tears.

"I said, get off..." but the words came out like the echo of a memory and his eyes seemed to refocus on her. "...Nel?"

"Yes it's Nel! Grimmjow can't have forgotten already!"

"I...no...NO!" He grabbed his head, reeling back in the sands. She let go of him watching in horror as he fell to his knees and began to scream. She had brought him back to his waking nightmare, all he could feel was his missing soul, feel how broken he was and re-experience that moment when it happened. Past the malice woven into him he could remember that he had wanted to protect this child like he had wanted to rescue Halibel but he couldn't remember the reasons, couldn't feel what he knew he should feel to have such a motivation. Her presence forced his mind to face a reality it could not handle, and so he was frozen in his broken state, screaming at a memory he couldn't escape.

"Grimmjow!" but a force blew past her, a man in all white, one of the soldiers. More were coming at his screams or at their king's command. "No stay away from him!" but her shouts went unheeded as they tried to contain him.

He fought against them, violent, uncontrolled, just reacting. But they aleady had his arms and someone drove their elbow into his sternum and he collapsed gasping. Another moved behind him and struck him in the back of the head, subduing him entirely.

"Gr...Grimmjow." Nel watched him fall into the desert face first, saw him wheeze for breath and begin to lose his grip on consciousness. The men moved to collect him, he couldn't defend himself. "Don't touch him! Leave him alone! GRIMMJOW!"

A storm of sand blinded them all for a moment, and they staggered in the sudden rush of spiritual pressure. They all stood, mouths agape, when the woman warrior appeared in the place of the child.

"I said," she took a step forward, baring her zanpakuto, "leave him alone!"

* * *

><p><strong><em>Hello all, struggled to get this next one out quickly so I made it a little longer for you! Should be posting again in the next couple of days.<em>**

**_Riza_**


	7. Day Break Chap 7

**Two Days remaining.**

"Another day lost." Rukia sighed in the cool night sky. She stood on the top of Urahara Shoten where they had decided to take Halibel and see if Urahara could get them into Hueco Mundo.

"Rukia." she looked down at the deep voice calling from the yard.

"What is it, Renji?"

"Urahara said it will take at least another hour before he gets everything ready, you should rest while you can."

She nodded, knowing how exhausting their last trip to the hollow world had been. "Alright, I'm coming."

* * *

><p>"Grimmjow?" He was just barely conscious when the woman hoisted him onto her bare lap. "Look, I saved you."<p>

But her gentle smile was lost on him when he winced and shut his eyes and she knew whatever was torturing him was still happening. "It's okay," she whispered soothingly, "I'm taking you away from here." She stood up from the bodies, lifting him easily. He was so wasted by the tortured done to him that he was barely a burden to her newly strengthened body.

"Stop." More white figures landed around them and she felt the power of their leader coming. Someone stepped forward to challenge her but her energy turned dense and flared about her. The smile from her features dropped and hazel eyes narrowed menacingly. "I will not allow you to touch him again."

The soldier leaped forward but the next instant she was gone. They just caught a glimpse of her vanishing through the ceiling high above.

"What happened?" they could feel the rage of their king and stumbled to answer. He set his jaw and clenched his fist. "The arrancar child...I was deceived."

* * *

><p>"Ichigo."<p>

"Is it ready, Kisuke?" the shopkeeper looked up from the device he'd been tinkering with but shook his head.

"No. Ichigo, just now...there was a sudden burst of spiritual pressure at your house.

"My house?" Ichigo didn't need to be told twice. He was flashing back before Renji and Rukia even knew what was going on.

He arrived just in time to see her collapse onto the form she lay so gently in his bed and shrink back to child form.

"Nel!" He jumped through his window and over the bed. "Nel" But she was asleep, sprawled on the chest of the man beneath her. "...Grimmjow." He too was unconscious. A rush of spiritual pressure and Rukia and Renji were back in the room with him.

"I, can't believe it." Renji started.

"She actually did it, she saved him." Rukia breathed out and they all watched the pair on the bed in disbelief.

* * *

><p>Bodies littered the dry desert where Grimmjow and the girl had been moments ago. None escaped the wrath of their king for their failure and he stood now, staring up at the ceiling and clenching his fist.<p>

"If they think escaping to the human world will bring them any more safety than they had here, they are wrong. I will reclaim those who have escaped along with those who have significant spiritual pressure in the world of the living before we destroy the Soul Society."

* * *

><p>"What did they do to him?" Ichigo asked, staring down at the thin form on his bed, the gruesome scars all down his arms and hands. Rukia had done a brief inspection to see that he also had such scars on his neck, back and the back of his head—just like Halibel's wounds, though hers were not quite so severe and she had no scars from a lashing. But she also had yet to wake up, Urahara kept guard over her, and said he could see she had suffered a great loss of her own spiritual pressure.<p>

"His soul..." Rukia had been shaken ever since the initial shock of their arrival. She was highly attuned to spiritual pressure- more so than both of the men, and immediately recognized what he was missing. "I don't understand how he is even functioning like this."

"But people's zanpakuto's are broken all the time, right?" Ichigo enquired, knowing that he had broken Renji's once and the lieutenant seemed fine. "It will heal."

"No, Ichigo, this is something I've never seen." Rukia spoke low and serious. "Pantera is just gone, not just his physical form, he is no more. Grimmjow's soul was cut in half and this is what is left."  
>"Why would they do this?" Renji asked, disgusted. Even if Grimmjow was the enemy, he couldn't imagine doing something like this to another being.<p>

"We won't know until he wakes up. We should call Soul Society."

"What?" Ichigo looked between them, "I mean-"

"Ichigo, we have two days left, we can't hesitate if there is any chance-" but her words cut off when Nel went flying off the bed and she had to jump to catch her. The tiny girl woke up startled in Rukia's arms but they were all focused on the man on the bed who had come to and sat up so suddenly.

For a long time he didn't seem to see them. He just sat there breathing hard like he'd run a marathon and one hand raised up over his chest as if he was in pain. They could see in his eyes his mind was torn between the present and somewhere else. Finally, though, their presence registered with him and he looked up at them.

"Soul Reapers..." his voice was monotone, they could read no emotion going through him at seeing them. When he said nothing more and just stared at them, Ichigo stepped forward.

"Grimmjow, do you remember me?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki, substitute Soul Reaper for the Gotei 13." He answered like it was some test.

"Ah, that's right..." Ichigo was perturbed.

"Grimmjow!" Nel squirmed in Rukia's grip, finally reacting to her hero's awakening. "Grimmjow is back!"

"The arrancar-child." He said when she landed on the bed before him.

"No, Nel! Remember Nel?"

"Yes, the arrancar-child."

"No _Nel!" _She insisted and grabbed his leg. "Remember? Say Nel. Tell Nel to go away and Grimmjow will remember her!"

"Go away Nel." He did as instructed in that dead voice but what Nel expected didn't happen.

"He's brain dead." Renji finally breathed out. "He's like a robot."

"Grimmjow wake up!" Nel continued to wail. "Nel saved Grimmjow! He has to get better!"

"Would someone get her out of here so we can have a conversation." Renji grumbled.

"Okay Nel," Ichigo said reaching out for her, "come here, let's go outside for a moment."  
>"NO!" She shrieked when his hands closed over her tiny form and her grip around Grimmjow tightened. "WHAA!"<p>

"Nel, come on, just-"  
>The room turned bright red and Ichigo went sailing through the door of his closet, crashing in a heap of clothes. He'd managed to deflect the cero at the last minute but it had been very close. When he shook himself out of the ruin of his closet he saw Grimmjow on his feet, Nel gripped tight in his hands.<p>

Renji had already drawn Zabimaru and Rukia had her hands raised to perform a kido but neither were moving just yet as they watch the rapid rise and fall of the espada's chest, azure eyes seeming just as confused as them as to what he was doing.

"Nel?" Grimmjow seemed to just becoming aware that he was holding her and he dropped her back to the bed on which he stood. She clung tight around his leg in joy.

"Grimmjow is back! Nel saved you! Now Nel has Ichigo _and_ Grimmjow, Nel is so happy!"

"Kurosaki." Grimmjow stared at him suspiciously and noted the other two. "You're a Soul Reaper again."

"Yeah."

"We're...in the world of the living."

"My bedroom, to be exact."

The espada paused over this. He looked back to the child attached to his leg. "I told you to find the humans..." He seemed to be piecing things back together, "why...?"

Nel looked up at him, "Because Grimmjow saved Nel from the shadow man!"

"the shadow...I..." they hadn't seen it before but Nel had, and her own eyes widened to match his own. They watched the horror spread over him, that dreadful feeling of emptiness strike him all over again. He jolted like someone had hit him and then his hand shot back to his chest.

"Grimmjow!" Ichigo caught him as he fell off the bed. Nel detached herself once more and they all moved in around the arrancar.

"Kurosaki..." Grimmjow breathed out, he seemed to be barely able to get any air.

"What did they do to you, Grimmjow?"

But that was exactly what he was trying not to think about and the memory began torturing him just like it had in the desert. Ichigo felt his whole body clench up before he started to scream.

"What do we do?" He asked the other two panicked. Nel squeezed past them.

"Nel will spit on him again!" Rukia pulled her back before she could but at the suggestion all three thought of the same person.

"Orihime."

* * *

><p>Grimmjow was back on Ichigo's bed, unconscious again. It had been Renji who had struck Grimmjow, saying it was more merciful than letting him continue on in such obvious pain and no one had argued. And now Orihime held her hands over him feeling out at the damage done to him and a mixture of horror and deep concentration her face. Chad and Uryu had been drawn to the house in all the recent spiritual activity and stood watching as well, the room packed. Nel clung to Ichigo's shoulder where she perched watching the human girl.<p>

"I..." Orihime didn't drop her barrier but the look on her face when she turned to them was not reassuring. "I can't undo this. It's so horrible, I don't understand." Not even the scars would fade under her glow.

Rukia put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, it is hard for us to understand as well. He seems to have suffered severe mental trauma from it. What we saw earlier, it was almost like two personalities. Is there anything you can do to help him that way?"

"I'll try."

Rukia nodded and turned to the others, "maybe it would be easier without an audience. I will stay, why don't you guys explain things to Uryu and Chad."

"Good idea." Renji said, leading them downstairs. Nel jumped off of Ichigo's shoulder to remain and no one argued.

Rukia sat back and watched Orihime work, ready to jump if Grimmjow suddenly turned violent like he had with Ichigo. But he had been reacting to Nel's cries, it was clear. Nel had said they were together ever since the war with Aizen. Maybe all those months with the strange child had changed him, maybe he really did care for her, though from her stories it just sounded like he tolerated her. But some connection had to have remained for him to snap back at her cries.

"I reject." She heard Orihime strain out, saw the sweat on her face.

"Orihime, what is it?"

"I found a memory...it's so...painful...the moment his soul was destroyed...but I think I can protect him from it, I think I can reject it from the rest of his mind."

"You're going to erase his memory?"

"No, just block it off. I don't know if it will work but..." Her face creased in concentration, "there." She gasped out and the golden barrier faded.

"Are you alright?" Rukia asked.

"Yes, but I'm not sure how Grimmjow will be."

"If you sealed off the memory of his soul breaking, then does this mean he will be himself again?"

"No. I mean, I think he will remember everything, but will still feel the loss of hi soul. There isn't anything I can do about that." she answered softly.

"It's alright. Can we wake him up?"

"You can try. Should I get Ichigo?"

"Yes, we should get the others in case he-"

But once again they didn't have time to do anything and the body below them stirred to life on his own.

"Inoue." His blue eyes found the girl and there was no way to read him yet. "Can you fix it?" He breathed out.

"I'm so sorry Grimmjow. I tried." he shut his eyes, not in the pain of the memory this time but just the agony of this reality.

"Are you in pain, Grimmjow?"

But he didn't respond. How could he possibly explain this feeling, this cold emptiness all around him, this detachment from everything.

"Grimmjow?" the small voice brought him back. "Does Grimmjow remember Nel?" She asked tentatively.

"I...remember who you are." But there was no hint of anything more, any recollection of those feelings that had driven him to destroy half of himself to save her.

"Rukia." Orihime said watching the arrancar, "I think we should give Grimmjow some privacy."  
>"A-Alright." She saw such sadness on Orihime's face that she agreed—she could monitor him from his spiritual pressure anyway. "Come on, Nel."<p>

The little girl was staring at those blue eyes that practically looked right through her, and this time, when Rukia picked her up to take her away, she didn't fight.

* * *

><p>"Rukia? Rukia, are you alright?" Renji stepped closer to the form hunched on the ground just outside the Kurosaki clinic. She was squatted on the lawn, arms clenched around her stomach and head against her knees. She looked like she was torn between tears and puking. When she and Orihime had come down from the bedroom she'd gone directly outside while Orihime updated the others on Grimmjow's condition.<p>

"Rukia?" He knelt and place a broad, supportive hand against her back. "What is it?"

"The humans can't see it...but for us...Renji don't you feel it when you're in the room with him? He's _wrong._ He's so impossibly _wrong._ Can you imagine tearing out your soul like that? And that's what that monster wants to do to us all."

"Hey, Rukia, he won't, we won't let him."

She nodded into her knees but the feeling she got seeing Grimmjow like that wasn't leaving her.

"I know what you mean, Rukia, I see it too. His aura is so foreign looking. But he used Cero, he still seems to have power. Maybe it's not all gone."

These were important facts to consider but the best thing would be to get answers from the direct from the source. They needed Halibel to wake up or Grimmjow to open up.

They heard a buzzing noise and Renji pulled his phone from his pocket.

"Urahara." he answered. "What, really? Alright, we'll be here."

"What was it?" Rukia straightened.

"Halibel woke up. She wants to cooperate with us fully. They are on their way now."

* * *

><p>"Grimmjow..." Green eyes swept over the bare back exposed to her. Grimmjow lay on his side, facing away from the rest of the room and completely unmoving, though awake.<p>

Before bringing her to him, they had interviewed her in the living room. She gave every detail she possibly could concerning the Vandenreich, what they did to her, to Grimmjow, and were still doing to Yammy. She told them of what she knew about their plans and who they were exactly. Even after everything, it was unclear, but she had suspected long ago that these people were an amalgam of beings—and after Grimmjow's conversion her suspicions were pretty much verified. She explained to them that she believed the emperor stripped them of their original powers and gave them new ones. When Ichigo told of the Vandenreich with a mask but seemingly Quincy powers rather than those of an arrancar, she nodded saying that was a very common combination.

"What's the point though?" Rukia had asked. "How does that make them better?"

"Perhaps it makes them compliant in some way." Halibel had answered.

"Like Grimmjow?" Ichigo asked but at once Halibel shot this down.

"No. None were so...damaged."

This brought an end to the discussion and she'd demanded to see him. She hadn't held back in explaining how he'd come back for her, and even after he'd been so transformed, in the end, he'd saved her. Now she stood watching him lay there like he was already dead.

"Does he still think he's part of the Vandenreich?"

"I don't think so," Orihime answered, "when I sealed off the worst part of the trauma, both parts of his consciousness reunited. He should be aware that they did this to him."

"And us?"

"He hasn't responded to Nel."

The Third espada considered this for a moment and then moved over to the bed.

"Grimmjow."

He didn't respond. She sighed and grabbed his knees to force him onto his back. He rolled without resistance and stared up at her. His eyes weren't empty like she thought, they were exactly the opposite. So much pain filled them it actually threatened to spill out in tears. She sat on the side of the bed, glancing back at the audience and they seemed to understand, trickling out of the room save Nel. But the soul reapers didn't shut the door, they would keep a respectful distance but they couldn't really leave the pair on their own in case they did decide to make a bolt for it. So they watched the surprisingly gentle nature of the female espada.

"What do you feel?" She asked, placing a hand on his forehead like a mother a sick child. They couldn't tell what she was looking for.

"Cold." he answered up to her. "I feel pain so deep for something I can't even remember, and yet when I look at you, and Nel, who I do remember, I feel nothing. My soul is gone...I am filled with only that feeling of loss, Halibel. It's all that's left of me."

"It can't be." She whispered down to him, her hand moving to stroke his hair soothingly. The others were stunned to see such tenderness between two espada but then Rukia's break down returned to Renji and he considered that maybe even a hardened warrior like Halibel, seeing the horror done to Grimmjow, her ally, her kin, would allow such emotions to show like Rukia had.

"You still saved me, Grimmjow. So if your soul really was gone, how could you have done that?"

"I remembered our alliance and who the Vandenreich really were. It wasn't me feeling anything, Halibel, it was simply his hold on me wearing off."

"I don't believe it. I won't. You can't give into this despair, Grimmjow. I will find a way to restore Pantera to you." She slid her bandaged hands behind his back and pulled him against her. "Put your arms around me." She instructed and he obeyed. She held him in the embrace and they felt her energy swirling around him.

"What are you doing?" He asked her.

Her eyes were shut, she was concentrating deeply "It's true." she breathed out finally, "You really don't remember him...or yourself." She withdrew, he remained sitting up while she moved across the room to get something. The Soul Reapers watched her pick up a shard of the mirror that had once been apart of a whole attached to Ichigo's closet door. Then she took a hold of Nel by the back of her cloak and brought both mirror and child back to Grimmjow.

"Here." She placed the mirror in his hand and had him look in it. "That is you," then she swung Nel up and dropped her on the bed before him, "and this is Pantera."

"Nel!" the child corrected and Grimmjow now looked perplexed but Halibel seemed very confident in her conclusion.

"Your soul contains all those things which make you alive," Halibel began to explain. "Everything a being does is motivated by the desires of their soul. Some people call this the heart, or the mind, or emotions, but it is the soul. She knows your soul better than anyone. She spent her every waking moment with you, and though you never showed it on the surface, I could see it in your aura, in your _soul-_ this child changed who you are Grimmjow Jaggerjaques. It's in her that you will find Pantera."

"Impossible." He said simply, looking at her. "I told you I feel-"

"I doesn't matter what you feel. Remember what I told you the day we met again, after Aizen's battle."

"You said I couldn't abandon her."

"It's still true. Don't let her out of your sight, Grimmjow. Don't let go of her, or him." she said pointing at the mirror. "And while you do that, I will see what I can do to bring the ruin of the Vandenreich."

She turned her back on him and he just watched her leave the room.

The Soul Reapers stared at her in shock as she made her way back down stairs before chasing after her.

"Will that really work?" Ichigo asked back in the living room.

"Of course not." Renji said, "You saw, his soul is gone."

"Then you are blind, Soul Reaper." Halibel said, sitting heavily. She herself was still exhausted, from all that had happened to her. "But that child stayed within his aura day after day since the war. And that child is unique, in many ways, but the reason she is the way she is, rather than the third espada, is because of that constant leak of spiritual pressure coming out of her broken mask. So for hundreds of days her spirit was washing over him, and she clung to him so tight his had to be washing over her. Their spiritual pressures intertwined. I saw it happen, very slowly, he never even noticed. If it had been me, or Yammy who'd been tortured like that, our souls really would be gone, we would have no hope left. But his survives in her spirit. I don't know that it will be enough, but if I thought there was no hope, I would kill him out of mercy."

Her revelation stunned them all. Urahara was the first to break from shock into a smiled. "Tia Halibel, I believe you are very wise. I am glad to have you on our side."

* * *

><p>"Try again!" Nel commanded, Orihime silently observing what the child had very quickly turned into a game but was in fact very serious. "Tell me what you look like," she said, holding the mirror against her so Grimmjow couldn't cheat. But once again, he had nothing. The moment he looked away from his reflection he lost all sense of what he looked like. It was gone, he was nothing in the state he was in so all he saw was nothing.<p>

"Nel?" he asked suddenly, "what do you see when you look in the mirror?" Orihime stiffened. He hadn't initiated conversation since she'd tried to heal him. He had answered all of Urahara and Renji's questions bluntly and honestly but as of yet had displayed zero original thought.

"Huh?" The girl pulled the mirror away from her body and looked into it. "Nel sees Nel."

He reached out and took the mirror back from her. "Now tell me what you look like."

Nel proceeded to describe herself in detail to him. She didn't understand what was going on but was happy for him to finally be interacting with her.

"You're wrong." He told her.

"Grimmjow?" Orihme rose. The girl had been correct, and she didn't know where this was going.

"You don't remember who you are."

"Yes, Nel knows exactly who she is!" She responded defensively. "It's Grimmjow who needs to remember!"

"I do. I still have all my memories. But you don't, Nelliel Tu Odelschwank, third espada."  
>"Nel has already told Grimmjow she doesn't know how to grow up and she doesn't remember the times when she was!"<p>

"Do you wish you could remember?"

She considered. "Well, Nel doesn't really mind because she had Pesche and Dondochakka and then Ichigo and then Grimmjow. She doesn't need to be grown up or have those memories when she has friends."

"But I need my soul."

Orihime watched in fearful silence. She really had no idea if he was going to burst into a sudden rage or have some sort of set back or what.

"Of course Grimmjow needs his, soul!" Nel said. "But Grimmjow also needs Nel! That's what you want, right? You wish to have your soul back so you can remember that Nel is your friend. And Halibel, and even fatso?"

"No." he said to her with his dead voice and cold eyes. "I don't wish anything, Nel, because I can't even feel that. Wishing is the same thing as hoping, and I have no hope."

"Why is Grimmjow saying these things?" Nel's voice trembled, water sprung up in the corner of her eyes. "Nel will get it back for Grimmjow anyway!" She declared.

"How?" he asked simply.

Nel stood before him on the bed, watching him carefully and then jumping forward and putting her arms around his neck. "Now tell Nel to leave you alone."

"Leave me alone."

"Tell her to go away."

"Go away."

"No! Nel will never leave Grimmjow! She promised back then and she promises now!."

"..."

"Grimmjow..." Orihime asked softly, finally interfering. "I think you should rest now. Why don't you try going to sleep."

He regarded her, but just like everything else they asked, he complied without question, laying back, Nel still around his neck. Orihime knew the child was supposed to remain with him so she just pulled a blanket up over them both and turned out the lights.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Voila mes ami(e)s! Hope you are all still enjoying, poor old Grimm is in a tough spot, good thing he has friends! Thanks for the reviews!<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	8. Day Break Chap 8

**One Day Remaining**

The clock chimed softly on the wall. Everyone gathered in the living room knew the implications. Four days exactly since the declaration made by the Vandereich in the First Division. This meant they had only 24 hours until the attack on Soul Society began. Looking out on the slowly warming sky, it seemed an impossible task to make any sort of difference now.

But everyone looked up when Orihime entered, Halibel at her back. The third espada was now fully healed, it was all they had needed.

"I still think this is reckless," Rukia murmured, straightening her zanpakuto on her hip.

"It is." Urahara agreed. "But Halibel is going back to do what she can, and I for one, think it is our best chance of preventing more lost lives."

Ichigo did not jump on this opportunity to tell Rukia and Renji he'd been right. Instead he looked at them both very seriously.

"You don't have to come, you know. I mean, maybe you should be with your squads."

"Of course we should be, idiot. But if there is even the slightest chance we could stop the attack we have to go." Renji barked.

"That's not what you were saying earlier."

"That's because we didn't have _her_." He nodded to Halibel. As suspicious as he was, she seemed sincere in her hatred of the Vandenreich and she had incredibly valuable insight into Las Noches and the enemy's operations. If they let her go on her own now, they would lose the one advantage they had found.

"Ready yourselves," Halibel instructed.

The Soul Reapers nodded.

"Ichigo..." Orihime caught his arm. "I want to go with you."

"I need you to look after Grimmjow and Nel for me. Uryu and Chad are going to stay with you as well."

"What?"

"It's not safe," Uryu explained, "we don't know that the Vandenreich won't return for Grimmjow, or that he won't lose it and attack you."

"Oh..." She still looked like she wanted to protest but didn't because looking at the group, she knew she would slow them down.

"It will be alright, Orihime. I will come back, I promise."

"Okay, Ichigo."

Renji stepped forward, putting a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, "we have to go."

"Right." The soul reapers followed Halibel outside. Orihime ran up to Ichigo's bedroom to watch them vanish but was startled to find Grimmjow sitting bolt upright, Nel clenched against his chest unconsciously and his eyes fixed on something in the night sky.

"Dammit!" Uryu swore running up to the window and seeing the Vandenreich hovering in the darkness. The Soul Reapers spotted him and a brief fight ensued, but the soldier vanished quickly.

"A Scout..." Grimmjow spoke in the darkness and Nel gasped, gripping tight to his arm.

"What do you mean?" Orihme asked.

Nel looked back at her. "More are coming."

* * *

><p>"The count down was to an attack on Soul Society- not the human world." Urahara reasoned, back in the house. "No doubt they plan to take over this city in the next twenty four hours and then travel into the Soul Society. They must know the properties of this city, they plan to use it's power against the Soul Reapers. Dammit, if we'd left-"<p>

"We didn't." Rukia intoned. "But that Scout...why would he let himself be seen like that?"

"To divide your forces." Halibel answered quickly. "You will send more over here, and weaken the defences on Soul Society."

"How do you know?" Renji asked.

"It's what Aizen did."

They all fell silent at this. That is, except for one hollow voice.

"He doesn't want this world, only the few beings with power in it." They were all startled to hear Grimmjow's voice. His spiritual pressure had become something so foreign it hardly registered with them and they had no warning of his arrival. He stood on the stairs, Nel next to him, her hand wrapped in his pant leg.

"How do you know this?" Urahara questioned.

"You are all looking at this emotionally. I don't have to worry about that. This is the most rational conclusion."

"Grimmjow..." Halibel looked him over, "I don't think we can trust you. The way you are now, you could be easily swayed by the enemy into acting on his behalf."

"No, Halibel." Grimmjow protested. "I told you, I remember our allegiance."

"But you have no motivation to uphold it- no sense of loyalty or honour any more."  
>"The Vandenreich took half of me the last time I was with them. It does not make any sense to return to them."<p>

"Well, let's assume he's right," Urahara said, "perhaps they simply don't want any lose ends when they start their war- no surprises. Getting rid of every person in this house would ensure that."

"My dad..." Ichigo said, "he took the girls away for Karin's soccer tournament."  
>"I will have Tessai send him a warning." Urahara assured. "but the rest of us must prepare now, they may come for us at any time."<p>

"Nel is scared." the arrancar child whispered up to Grimmjow. "Hold her."  
>They watched him obey. He may speak logic and reason but he was still so empty inside that he followed their every command. It was a concern that the Vandenreich would control him again, even if he denied it.<p>

"Grimmjow was his first reborn soldier," Halibel said, "he was watching him closely and will probably want him back. And when he discovers that Inoue was able to partition the trauma that made him an unstable soldier, he will no doubt desire her as well."  
>"And you, Halibel," Grimmjow added. "He wants your power."<p>

"I think we all understand," Renji said, unsheathing his sword, "We have to stand firm, together."

"Grimmjow, come over here." Halibel commanded him. "I don't want to let you out of my sight." Child in arms, he moved next to her.

"Halibel," he said when he was at her side, his voice suddenly seeming to fill with an awareness of that emptiness inside him again, "don't let him do this to you."

She looked him over, they all noticed the change in him between pure rational to desperate and pain-filled.

"It's okay," Ichigo assured, stepping forward and putting a hand on his shoulder, "we're all going to fight, we'll protect each other."

But the former espada jerked back from his touch and they all felt the flare in his spiritual pressure.

"Grimmjow?" Nel asked in his arms, feeling them tighten about her and seeing the change in his features.

When he didn't respond Halibel looked between her ally and the teen Soul Reaper. Her intelligent eyes seamed to search him for something and then her hand darted to her side. She gripped the handle of her zanpakuto and her eyes narrowed as if she had just come to some conclusion.

"Is it possible?" she asked herself, stepping forward to Grimmjow and releasing a concentrated burst of her own spiritual pressure.

"Stop it." he tried to move away from her but she swooped forward catching him by one shoulder.

"Come here." She commanded of Ichigo and he cautiously stepped forward, not sure what was going on.

"Halibel stop!" Grimmjow cried out, his arms letting go of Nel and shooting up to push Halibel back. The child slid to the ground at his feet but even with both hands on Halibel's arm he could not dislodge her.

"So...it's not just the child." Halibel spoke with confidence while Grimmjow seemed to be experiencing some sort of panic attack. It was the most emotion he'd shown since Halibel had gone to see him and the same conclusion that must have struck her was now donning on them all.

"What's happening to him?" Ichigo asked, seeing Grimmjow shaking now, his attempts to escaped Halibel's hold weakening. The Third looked sideways at him and shot out her free hand to grab him as well.

"Grimmjow," She drew him against her while still holding onto Ichigo.

"I can't do this Halibel..." Grimmjow's resistance faded completely and now he leaned against her like his own legs wouldn't hold him. "this feeling-" She let more of her spirit pour out and he nearly dropped, her arm around him was the only thing that kept him from falling. His own hands shot around her for support and they all heard him gasp out in utter suffering, his face hidden against her shoulder but the sound of near sobbing clear.

"Stop it!" Ichigo protested. "What are you doing to him?"

"Yeah, leave Grimmjow alone!" Nel seconded, but those who were standing back, who could read their auras, were simply transfixed by what was happening before them.

"Grimmjow, stay with me." Halibel said. "I have a question for you."

He didn't respond, it didn't look like he was capable and she eased up on the flow of her power and everyone listened to hear what she was going to say.

"Grimmjow, tell me, what do you look like?"  
>He stiffened in her grasp and slowly withdrew from her enough to see her face. She looked down into startled eyes.<p>

"Tell me the colour of your eyes."

"...blue."

* * *

><p><strong>23 hours remaining<strong>

"Nel is still the anchor of his soul- without her there wouldn't be enough to build on- but it seems he has left enough impression on Ichigo from their intense battles and on Halibel through their kinship that they now also serve as a way for him to access that part of himself. Given enough time in their presence, he may regain Pantera, though it appears, it will be an emotionally painful process."

Kisuke concluded to those gathered in the living room. They still sat on guard, awaiting the Vandenreich, but what had just happened could not be ignored. After Halibel had established all of this, she had let Grimmjow go and backed away, nearly collapsing herself. Ichigo too, felt inexplicably emotional and realized that because of his attachment to Grimmjow's soul, he must be glimpsing the horror Grimmjow was feeling now, broken as he was. He had no questions now, as to why Halibel seemed so caring for him when close to him yet fairly detached when not in his presence.

"How long would it take?" Rukia asked.

"It is impossible to know." Urahara answered gravely. Maybe years, maybe a day. All we know for sure is that if Grimmjow has any hope of ever recovering, Nel, Ichigo and Halibel must remain alive and uncaptured."

"Well let's try to keep it that way for everyone, okay?" Renji said from where he watched out the window.

"Yes, good idea." Urahara replied. "Have you heard anything from the Soul Society?"

"They agree." Renji spoke into the window. "It is most likely a tactic to divide our forces or perhaps to get us to open a Senkeimon, therefore, no passage between our worlds is permitted."

"Then I am sorry," the old shopkeeper said, "that you and Rukia have gotten trapped here."

"No." the lieutenant of the sixth responded, finally glancing back at them, "we're needed here."

"Yes," Rukia agreed, "we must fight for our friends."

"When are the shadow-men coming?" Nel asked from her perch in Grimmjow's lap. He had reverted to silence once Halibel and Ichigo had backed off and sat on the stairs away from the others. "Nel is sleepy."

"We don't know." Ichigo said, more to the others though, "should we really just wait here? Could we at least move away from my home?"

"We could take the fight to them, in Hueco Mundo." Halibel suggested.

"I considered that myself," Urahara nodded, "but there is a chance there is something more than us in this world they seek and if we were to leave we would leave it virtually undefended."

"Then the shop?" Renji asked.

"Yes, it's as good a place as any to wait, I think." Kisuke agreed standing up. "And remember, stay close to one another."

Ichigo took Orihime, Renji grabbed Chad's arm to carry him through flash step and Halibel took Grimmjow's hand, not sure if he was able to use sodino anymore. The rest moved close together toward the shop.

It had been the moment the Vandenreich were waiting for.

Their first mistake had been letting all three espada travel together. The first strike hit them hardest. Halibel did her best to deflect the shock of power that hit them- cero or quincy manifestation she couldn't tell. She dropped her hold on Grimmjow to counter a second enemy. Behind her Grimmjow stood defenceless, Nel in his arms, making no moves to run or help Halibel.

"Damn." Ichigo saw what was happening but Renji and Chad dropped out right next to them and he saw why a moment later. Both soul reapers had to act to protect the humans in their charge, the enemy moving much faster than either human could track. Blue light flew all around them, they couldn't see much beyond their personal battle but from the weight of spiritual pressure all around, they knew their group was out numbered.

* * *

><p>Nel held tight to Grimmjow's arms around her, flinching from the waves of spiritual pressure that struck them from Halibel's battle. But suddenly she saw nothing but white before her, and looking up she cried out, seeing the arm stretched above her and the hand clenched around Grimmjow's throat.<p>

"Grimmjow," the soldier growled out, this one distinctly the leader of the group, a lieutenat, "our Lord is very displeased with you." Without warning he let out a burst of power that sent shock of electric power through Nel via Grimmjow and she fell with a cry to the ground but Grimmjow fell much harder several feet back, a dark burn around his neck where he'd been held. The lieutenant shot over to where he was struggling back to his feet but he didn't show the pain, or any sign of anger.

"Pft," He snorted, taking hold of Grimmjow's arm and hauling him up again, "You are the perfect soldier, aren't you? No pain, no feelings, you don't even defend yourself without being ordered to, do you?"

He backhanded Grimmjow, hard, sending him back to the ground, but once again, the ex-espada just rose, showing no reactions, physical or emotional. The soldier chuckled. "Man, I was pissed when I was told I had to haul your ass back, personally, I would have liked to handle the bitch, but now I think this could be interesting."

"Don't hurt Grimmjow!" Nel whimpered, the initial shock of power had not directly struck Nel but unlike her hero, she was not numb and _did_ feel the pain of it. The soldier ignored her as she limped forward, and struck Grimmjow again."Stop it!" She screeched, watching the man strike out again and again but Grimmjow never doing anything to stop him. The small girl clutched her chest, feeling a swell of power in her body, feeling anger for this creature that would touch her Grimmjow. But still, she was ignored.

"Alright," the lieutenant said, finally bored, and glancing around to see that the Vandenreich were not overtaking their other opponents as easily as planned, "Let's go." He reached to the ground to collect his prey but this time Grimmjow did flinch back.

"I'm not going with you."

"I thought you were brain dead." He pulled Grimmjow up but the other shook out of his grasp.

"I know what the Vandenreich King did to me."

"Oh, so you don't care about these wounds but you do feel the loss of your soul." The soldier mused, considering the beat up man before him. "I'll have to report that back. But now it really is time for us to leave."

"Don't touch him." His hand met a blade and the soldier suddenly fell back clutching the limb. Halibel was hurting, her left leg gushing blood and severe bruising on her back. She'd taken on several of the Vandenreich but after what she'd endured at their hands last time, she would not be easily taken again. However, when four more Vandenreich appeared around them, their chances were not good.

"Give up, witch." The lieutenant, his hand now bleeding profusely, glared down at her. She glanced back and Grimmjow, seeing his wounds, her green eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Coward." She bit out at the soldier and aimed her attack for him. But he didn't have to move a muscle. The four that had appeared all raised their hands as one and blue bangs of light shot out from each of them, wrapping around her body. She screamed. It was hard to tell what was happening to her but they hadn't just immobilized her, they were causing her great pain.

"Now, Grimmjow, be good, and come with me." He extended his good hand, a blue light flaring to life in the palm, no mistaking the threat.

But there was an unexpected burst of power and the girl that had been forgotten lunged.

The lieutenant smiled.

"Oh yes," he causally reached out and caught the girl mid-air around the throat. "I was warned about you." Her body had been on the verge of transforming but now, struggling to breath that enormous power shrivelled, washing over them before dissipating and the child hung dying in his death grip.

"Let them go." The voice was low, but the menace dripping from it was heard by all. Blue eyes were livid as both female espada suffered before him. The air thick with their powers and their pain, something deep inside him stirred, and though it brought with it his own agony, this time it also brought his primal feeling—anger.

The lieutenant regarded him, but he just smiled and clenched his fist tighter around Nel's throat. "They are nothing to you, anymore, Grimmjow, I thought you understood that."

Halibel screamed again. Nel's grip on her captor's hands fell and her body sagged. And the fury of the man who's soul had been torn from its vessel, exploded from his brutalized body, hitting the atmosphere like thunder, and just as blinding as lightening.

"This is me." Grimmjow threw his thumb back, pointing at his chest. And then he was moving, not flash step, just fluid, logical, calculated motions, and it only took three powerful strikes before he had Nel dislodged and in his arms again. "And this is my soul."

With her so close his fury seemed to grow exponentially, the darkness swirling around him spreading out—that hollowness inside him paralysing the enemy as they felt it themselves. His gaze turned to Halibel and the four restraining her. "And so is she."

One hand still holding Nel, he swept through them like a master teaching his student's lessons. Even in her pain, past the blue glow, Halibel saw his flawless technique and heard him repeating words she'd spoken to him many times.

"You leave your left side open." he informed a Vandenreich as he took him down with a punch to the ribs. He caught the man's blade as he stumbled and without stopping swung it back to finish him.

One band of blue light was gone. The next soldier shot forward.

"You act on emotion." Grimmjow rolled away from the blow meant to kill him with such calmness and ease it looked like a dance and his stolen sword passed through his opponent with hardly a sound. Another band of light disappeared. The next one challenged Grimmjow with a glowing bow.

"You show your fear." He hoisted his sword high, and threw it like a javelin before even a single arrow could be released. Only one band of blue light remained holding her in place now and without even looking at the last of the soldiers, Grimmjow raised his now empty hand and let the cero build. "And you should have run while you had the chance."

The red light shot out and engulfed the last man. Halibel was free but they had sapped her strength and she fell. She did not, however, hit the ground. Instead a hand still hot from cero caught her and held her up against his body.

"And your mistake," Halibel jolted at Grimmjow's voice and realized the lieutenant was still alive. He had his sword raised between bloodied fingers and was staring at them wide-eyed, "Was underestimating your enemy."

The Vandenreich soldier charged them with a cry. Grimmjow stood there, completely calm, watching him rush them. Halibel tensed, thinking maybe he had reverted and was not going to defend himself or them, but the soldier lurched, blood arced through the air at his back and a billow of white robes landed behind him. Urahara flicked the fallen creature's blood from Benehime, the others landing beside him, their own battles now done.

No one seemed to want to break the spell, wanting to see what Grimmjow would do or say, but Halibel slumped further against him and Nel was barely conscious. Ichigo moved forward first but they instantly saw Grimmjow falter. He'd been able to handle the consciousness of his soul from two sources, but a third threatened to push him from barely functional to immobilizing despair. Urahara drew Ichigo back and hurried forward to catch Halibel before she fell completely from his grip and Orihime drew Nel away with her. The spiritual pressure of both female arrancar was weak now and, no longer holding either of them, all fury and feeling left Grimmjow and he just stood there, back to feeling nothing but emptiness.

"Come here," Renji instructed Grimmjow and he moved obediently toward him, Uryu and Chad. They sat him down, taking stock of his wounds, "aren't you in pain?" Renji asked incredulously, especially seeing the raised red skin on his throat but no sign that Grimmjow felt any of it.

"Yes," He answered in that dead voice, "But it's nothing compared to the loss of Pantera."

Uryu's eyes widened. "Pantera. You've always just said your soul. Do you remember him?" He glanced back to make sure the others were not close enough to be influencing him, but Nel and Halibel were both under Orihime's glow now. "Is he getting better?" He asked.

Renji frowned, trying to interpret the dark swirl that was Grimmjow's mutilated aura but couldn't tell if it had changed. "I don't know, Rukia, what do you..." he turned to his side where he expected her to be and just now started to realized what he'd missed after the heat of his own battle. She'd been there, she was fine, their own battles had been rather simple compared to the attack on the espada, and yet, she was not there.

"Rukia?"  
>Ichigo looked up. He too had been guilty of concentrating on his human friends. He glanced around their group, panicked, seeing the shocked look in Uryu's eyes, the guilt in Renji's and worst, the understanding dawning on Urahara as he felt out with his spiritual pressure.<p>

"They've taken her." He stated betraying his own sense of failure.

"No!" Ichigo stood up. "They were after them," he gestured at the arrancars, "why would they do that?"

"I was the first experiment." Grimmjow answered him. "They plan to do it to the soul reapers. They'll test it on her."

"What?" It was hard to tell who's voice it was, Renji adn Ichigo were both scrambling to strap their swords back in place and look to Urahara.

"We must go now." The old shop keeper didn't hesitate. "Before they..." he glanced over at Grimmjow and found blue eyes shockingly full of pain and fright. The broken espada leaped up, rushing over to Ichigo.

"You can't let them do it." He had him by the shoulders, a look so desperate in his eyes Ichigo almost thought the espada wanted Rukia back more than himself. But it wasn't about her, it was about what the Vandenreich were going to do, about what he was feeling now. "We have to stop them." He stepped back and reached out into the air to open a Garganta. No one moved forward, they all knew that by stepping through they might be doing exactly what the Vandenreich wanted.

"There is less than a day until the attack on Soul Society," Uryu thought aloud, "they can't turn her before that."

"They want us to go through," Urahara concluded. "They want us out of the way before the attack."

"But we have to go!" Renji urged. "I am. It doesn't matter if it's their plan."

"I agree." Ichigo seconded.

"Ichigo..." Orihime looked between him and Renji and then her eyes rested on Grimmjow. He was still beat up, Halibel and Nel were just barely healed under her glow, but he too, was ready to rush in and save her. "I'm coming too." She finished.

With that, the agreement seemed to be made. Halibel rose and moved out of the teen's glow.

"Grimmjow, close that." She instructed. "If we're doing this, we're doing it right."

* * *

><p><em><strong>That's right, even broken, Grimmjow can still be badass! Hope you liked it!<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	9. Day Break Chap 9

**22 hours remaining**

The Garganta closed behind the group as they stepped out into the shelter of trees, darkness covering them from sight. In the lead was the golden haired espada, flanked by Urahara and Renji. Behind her, Grimmjow was kept in the middle of their group, the fully healed arrancar child back in his arms. Ichigo, behind him, kept Orihime close, Uryu and Chad next to him as well, forming a rear-guard.

"Why did you bring us here?" Renji demanded, knowing how far the Menos forest was from the palace.

"Because," Halibel intoned behind her mask, "if this is a trap, then they would have expected us to come out close to the palace. Grimmjow managed to stay hidden here for several days, it will give us a chance to scope out the movements of the Vandenreich before we make our move."

"They poisoned Grimmjow before!" Nel piped up and they looked back at the two kept safely in their middle. "He told Nel before she saved him."  
>"Yes," Grimmjow concurred, "it was some sort of gas. It killed everything but me."<br>"Well, as long as they don't know we're here, they won't use it." Urahara concluded but gave a glance at the humans. Anything that had killed gillion that quickly would no doubt also kill them. "But keep ready, Orihime, just in case." The girl nodded. Her powers could be an asset in several ways on this mission.

"There are too many of us." Halibel instructed. "Only one or two of us should gather the intel."

"Yes, I agree." Kisuke nodded. "You and I?"

She nodded. No one could protest, they were both very powerful, calm and had great control over their spiritual pressure, not to mention Halibel knew the layout of the land better than any soul reaper. They had the stealth and knowledge required to do the job.

"What about us, then?" Ichigo asked.

"You will follow at a slower pace. Move carefully toward the palace but do not stir up any trouble or make your presence known in any way. Once we have what we need, we will return to you." Halibel answered but they all waited for Urahara's nod before agreeing.

"Okay." Ichigo said reluctantly. "Be careful."

"Yes." Halibel moved closer to Grimmjow. "Defend yourself if you must, Grimmjow. Do not let them hurt you again."

"Okay."

"Don't worry," Nel added, "Nel will tell Grimmjow what to do until he is better and remembers for himself!"

It was hard to tell Halibel's expression with her mask and collar covering much of her face, but her eyes showed that she accepted the child's declaration. "Good. Now we must go."

They watched the pair leave, and then followed their instructions and moved forward. They would use the Menos forest for cover for as long as possible, Grimmjow, now, their only guide.

* * *

><p><strong>20 hours remaining<strong>

"Should they really be gone this long?" Chad asked as they trudge through the stone outcroppings behind Grimmjow and Nel. The girl now trailed at his feet, one hand locked around his leg and Orihime right behind, doing what she could to heal up his injuries from the beating he'd taken without letting her spiritual pressure give them away. They were taking a less direct route to the palace, but Grimmjow had said it was the only way that did not leave them totally exposed so they had agreed to take this direction though the desert.

"They may be waiting for an opportunity to get close." Renji answered, but his voice also edged with concern. Grimmjow slowed, causing Orihime to nearly bump into him when he stopped completely.

"You think they might be caught?" he looked to Renji.

"No, Grimmjow," Ichigo warned from the back of the group. Even though Halibel wasn't there any longer, it still seemed best to dilute the amount of their souls that touched him.

"If you think they are, we need to act now," Grimmjow insisted. "We can't let them-"

"Shh, Grimmjow." Orihime reached out a comforting hand. "Remember, it took days for you to..." She didn't know how to finish- how could she be telling him this, of course he knew.

"We stick to the plan." Uryu put an end to it. "How close are we?"

"A couple of miles." Grimmjow answered, seeming to calm down. "There isn't much cover beyond here."

It was true, the rocks they'd been moving through were more sparse now, they were already quite exposed. And before them Las Noches loomed, in that strange optical illusion of never getting closer. But it was large as life and trusting to what Grimmjow said, it was not far now.

"Nel..." the girl looked up to him expectantly, "You shouldn't be here."

"Wh...what?" The girl exclaimed in indignation. "How can Grimmjow say that after everything he and Nel have been through?"

_"Because_ of what we've been through." He answered bluntly. "I remember that the King tried to kill you last time. I might not be able to protect you this time."

"Grimmjow is worried about Nel?"

"I already told you, I don't feel anything like that Nel, I just remember that you were my ally."

"Friend."

"What?"

"Grimmjow is Nel's friend."

He considered her. "Okay."  
>The child was stunned into the silence. The others watched on, expecting her to break into a joyous smile, but instead her large eyes filled up with tears and then she was howling with sobs. Orihime quickly tried to quiet her down—they were still trying to maintain their cover, but the girl knotted her fingers in Grimmjow's pant leg and would not be drawn away from him.<p>

"Nel," Ichigo said, daring to get closer in an attempt to get her to quiet. "What's wrong?"

"Nel thought Grimmjow remembered because he saved her before!" She hicupped out. "But he's still sick! He never would say we were friends!" Ichigo did manage to draw her against him and muffle her cried into his chest. Grimmjow watched on, his eyes unreadable.

"Maybe she shouldn't come." Renji finally spoke, rather concerned about the stability of the child in a situation that was already plenty volatile.

"Where else could she go?" Ichigo countered. "The choices are simply to abandon her or bring her toward danger with us. At least this way she is where we can do something to protect her if needed."

"Well, you keep her then, Grimmjow isn't doing her any good."

"Renji..." Orihime shot Grimmjow a worried look but he didn't seem to take offence.

"We have to keep moving, in any case." Uryu said. Ichigo nodded and stood with Nel but at that moment they felt two forces headed their way. Kisuke and Halibel dropped down right before them.

Grimmjow lurched back, struck with their combined spirits but only turned to see Las Noches and with that hint of his soul fresh in his mind and seeing the palace he was overwhelmed. Whatever news the pair had brought with them would have to wait because they watched Grimmjow fall into a rock and lean forward, bracing his hands on his knees and fight just to breath.

"What's happening?" Urahara asked.

"It just started." Ichigo supplied.

"I'm okay..." Grimmjow huffed out but it was less than convincing as he began panting, almost hyperventilating.

"Pantera is definitely coming back." Kisuke nearly whispered but Halibel jumped on his words.

"What? You know this?"

"You were right. You saw it in Nel and he found it in you and Ichigo as well. In that fight back there, the magnitude of all that power you released, and Nel, it must have stuck. He may find it painful, disorienting, and it may only be the smallest of steps, but I think the seed of his soul has been sewn."

"He'll come back then." She breathed, "He'll recover."

"I think it very likely."

Even though Grimmjow was now grabbing his head and Orhime trying to get him to sit down, it was a wave of relief to them all in such a high stress situation. But it was short lived when the two delivered their news.

"Battle preparations are all but done." Kisuke began. "We did not see the Vandenreich leader, but his lieutenants are busy getting everyone organized for departure to Soul Society. We got as close as we dared, but we could find nothing out about Rukia from outside. We will have to go in. Halibel has told me of the control room. That's were we go."

"We did that." Nel spoke up, pulling away from Ichigo an inch or two. "Grimmjow and Nel broke in there the first time to save Halibel."

"What?" Halibel had never been exactly clear as to how Grimmjow had found her.

"Yes," Grimmjow was now sitting next to Orihime, head back against a rock, exposing his adams apple and the remainder of the burn along his neck. "I broke into the tower, got to the control room. They left an opening that I could trace on the screens, I fell for it, got caught."

"Still, what other options are there?" Ichigo asked.

"That was not the only control room the soul reaper traitors used." Halibel informed. "But there is no reason to think the other one will be any less dangerous."

"Then we keep our guard up." Kisuke said, "But it will be the best way to get a handle on the situation."

"Alright, then everyone stay close." Halibel glanced sideways at Grimmjow. "Come here." She told him. He rose with a hand from Orihime, clearly still unsettled by the feelings swirling inside him but he still obeyed her. "Don't lose it, on me, okay?" She told him.

He just nodded. Ichigo kept Nel and stepped away from them, Orihime joining him and they were ready to move.

"Okay," Urahara began, "We all knew the risks in coming here. We need save Rukia, but we are also the last chance of stopping this threat before it strikes Soul Society and possibly the world of the living. So nobody get captured or die."

There was collective agreement, nervousness replaced by the sheer responsibility now resting on them, but no matter how determined, there was no way for them to know if they would ever come out of that palace once they went in.

* * *

><p>Dark eyes followed the movements of the group that had just entered the palace on the many monitors before him. His mouth was set firm in a thin line, and his subordinates glanced nervously between the screens and their master, not sure whether he was pleased or furious.<p>

"They are as stupid as I thought. How...disappointing." He sighed softly. "You know your orders. Don't forget, Kurosaki's bankai is still intact, do not underestimate him. Take care of him and the others, I will deal with the espada myself."

* * *

><p>"I don't like this." Uryu whispered from where he kept watch in the corridor. "They obviously left this open for us."<p>

"Well, then let's see what they wanted us to see." Urahara moved past him to check out the monitors of the secondary control room. Halibel was already flicking through them, Ichigo stood with his sword at the ready, also feeling this was very much a trap. Grimmjow had Nel back in his arms, and stood behind Halibel, watching as well.

"No..." Halibel stopped and Nel cried out when Grimmjow's arms suddenly tightened painfully around her.

In the blue glow of the screens pure horror danced in both mature espadas' eyes.

"Yammy..." Grimmjow managed.

"What are they doing to him?" Urahara asked, but the truth was apparent not just by the reaction in Grimmjow's body now, but by the scars on his arms and neck. Yammy was chained in a room, on a long table, hands extended upward and tied tight two a long blade between them. "That is what they did to you, isn't it, Grimmjow?"

But the other was unresponsive. He took a step back, Halibel turned and tried to catch him, but his eyes were so wild, so full of pain and fear and...desperation, and she knew that the trap was sprung. Grimmjow was gone before any of them had a chance to stop him.

"Find your friend." Halibel instructed, leaving the horrific image on the monitor behind. "I'm going after him."

Again, there was no chance to stop her.

"Dammit!" Ichigo swore but Urahara's hand shot out and he indicated a screen. "No time to argue." They could see a dark form slumped to the ground, in a cell somewhere. Blood caked her black cloaked body, the slight shaking of her small frame was the only indication she was still alive.

"Rukia!" Renji exclaimed.

"Go." Urhara instructed. "I am staying here. It is all a trap, we know that. But we also cannot forsake each other. I will keep touch on the soul pager and tell you what I can from here."

"You'll be okay on your own?" The lieutenant asked.

"Yes, now be careful."

* * *

><p>"You came."<p>

Grimmjow didn't even remember leaving the others. He just knew he was here, in this horrible room, full of the noxious scent of something much worse than death. He could see it: what the Vandenreich lord had watched happen to him all those long days. Yammy was so small, so thin, compared to the giant he had always been. Grimmjow knew that his physical form was a reflection of his spiritual pressure. They must have depleted him so much that this was all that was left. His arms were coated in blood, but it had only been a day since Grimmjow had escaped and yet Yammy's soul was torn in so many places.

"I took all I could of his power without killing him." The king explained to the shaking figure. "This is all that is left, and as you can see, his soul was already so weakened that what took three weeks to do to you, Grimmjow, is taking mere hours in him."

"Yammy..." Grimmjow ignored the monster king, everything fixated on the horror before him, on the same torture he himself had endured and now, despite the barriers Orihime had created in his mind to keep him stable, those memories were threatening to break loose and consume him. "YAMMY!" He jumped up on the table and ran to a man he detested but would die right now to save because no one should endure this. But before he could reach him he was hit by a force. He struck the table hard and rolled off. The king grabbed a fistful of blue hair and pulled him up before slamming the side of his face against the surface of the table.

"This is my victory Grimmjow, but you may witness it as well." His face pressed into fresh blood, and beneath it, he could still feel the crust of his own. Nel had fallen somewhere in the king's attack, she scrambled back to the table, but she too, felt what was about to happen.

The room seemed to explode. Not a stone cracked, nor a chair tipped, but a spirit broke.

Chains clattered to the table, the man that had been held by them fell to his knees, and all that was left of one of the most powerful zanpakutos in the universe was a shimmering mist that rushed away as if caught in a wind.

The king released Grimmjow. The sixth fell back to the floor, where he sat and saw his failure, saw that he had forsaken his ally to this fate. And he remembered the moment it happened to him. He remembered breaking. And so he just sat there, frozen in agony, when the door burst open and Halibel screamed something out, and the king bent low to Yammy, and smiled,

"You are reborn, Yammy. Go, kill your former allies."

* * *

><p>Urahara Kisuke didn't notice how his own hand shot to his heart when he witnessed on the monitors the fall of the zero espada. He did notice, however, that every being in the palace faltered, every creature, sympathetic or not, could not deny the repulsiveness of what their king had done, could not hide the reeling of their own souls from such a cruel and unnatural torture done to another.<p>

Ichigo's voice cracked on the soul pager, asking what had happened, was everyone still alright, but he didn't respond, because the broken being was rising, body still covered in his own blood, but turning to Grimmjow with the cold intent to kill in his eyes. Halibel was clearly still in shock at what had just happened, and it took her a moment before she reacted. Yammy jumped off the table, straddling Grimmjow who was as of yet unmoving, just watching him in horror. He got a fist around the sixth's neck before Halibel intervened.

"Yammy, snap out of it!"

She knocked into him, pushing him back easily. It was an unfair fight, Yammy was swordless and already severely weakened. But he was unrelenting, and just like Grimmjow, would follow orders even if they killed him.

"Grimmjow get up." Halibel ordered him, intending to get them all out of here at once but the king was not going to allow that.

Urahara watched on the screen as the shadow lord moved faster than either the cameras could catch or his own eyes could follow and he had the female espada around the neck. Nel finally reacted to everything that was happening, and, seeming to understand that Halibel was their only chance, jumped past that swirling cape of shadow and latched herself onto the king's arm to try to free the other third.

"Ichigo..." Kisuke finally raised the pager, "have you got Rukia yet?" He couldn't tear eyes away to check on them.

"No, it's so confusing in this place, why?"

"The espada are in trouble."

"..." There was only static, it was clear Ichigo was torn. He hadn't really had a chance to figure out if he trusted Halibel and Grimmjow yet, but they did have Nel with them. He wanted to run to their aid but he equally needed to find Rukia.

A second voice came over the radio. "I'll go." Renji said, never wanting to admit that Ichigo had the better chance of saving Rukia.

"Wait..." Urahara was watching the battle with no sound or no sense of spiritual pressure but something exploded across all of Las Noches and he watched one of the figures on the screen fall limp.

"What was that?" Ichigo demanded.

"Urahara!" Renji's voice seconded, "Who was that?"

"...that... was the death of an espada."

* * *

><p><em><strong> There you are folks! I really appreciate the reviews and those who are keeping up with this story!<br>Thanks!**_

_**Riza**_


	10. Day Break Chap 10

**19 Hours remaining**

For all her strength and fury, Halibel could not resist the darkness that crept over her vision, stealing her consciousness. She felt the flare of Nel's power, but even combined, the two female espada couldn't get free of the King's hold. He wasn't interested in them, he wanted to see what would happen between his two reborn soldiers.

"What did you do to him?" the questioned hissed out of the darkness and Halibel managed to hold on to consciousness. "His soul...you can't have found a way to restore Grimmjow's soul." His anger engulfed her like a physical force and when he let her go there was nothing to stop her from falling to the floor. She struck hard, her bone mask making a harsh clank as it met stone tile. She felt Nel fall next to her, also caught up in the king's rage. He remained standing above them, his dark energy washing over them relentlessly, not giving Halibel a second to escape his hold even if the physical restraint was gone. And so she watched with him, as Yammy picked up Grimmjow again.

"Grimmjow, fight back..." Halibel managed and even though he was being lifted off his feet by his opponent, his blue eyes tracked her voice and he saw them both at the monster's feet. He saw the creature that had done this to him and now to Yammy and he saw Nel quaking on the floor, Halibel barely conscious. He didn't feel the anger that normally would fuel him, he couldn't feel anything clearly in the jumbled confusion of his broken mind and soul. But enough of him registered her words and his arms flew up to pry Yammy's hand from his throat. He stumbled back, but Yammy was already on him. They locked together, the first time Grimmjow was ever able to counter him in such a direct manner. He took in Yammy's wasted form, his ruined, soulless aura.

"What will you do, Grimmjow?" The king taunted. It was all a game to him. He'd taken what he wanted from both men already, now he just wanted to see what would happen. "You know you can win this fight if you really want to. But he's your ally, will you kill him?"

"Yammy, stop fighting me." Grimmjow ordered. But there was no effect.

"I've been bathing him in my power since I started, Grimmjow. It's no use, his loyalty is mine now."

"He did this to you!" Grimmjow insisted, straining against Yammy.

"You gave up what he offered, Grimmjow." The other countered.

"I remembered what he did to me." Grimmjow yanked back and grabbed Yammy's wrist. He held out his arm to show those awful wounds. "This is what he did to you!"

"He liberated me."

An elbow caught Grimmjow in the jaw. His grip slipped from all the blood on Yammy's arm and another strike had him fall into the table. Yammy grabbed a leg and swung him up onto the crimson surface, rolling with him and ending up on top, hands around Grimmjow's neck. There was so much blood beneath him and on the hand he tried to forced from his neck, that Grimmjow could get no purchase in flesh or table to free himself.

"Why did you do it?" Yammy demanded as he squeezed his life away. "What made you betray our Lord?"

"...Nel." he manged to squeeze out past the pressure on his throat, "and Hali-" His voice was cut off, Yammy lifted him up enough to slam him back, but his hands released his throat. Grimmjow gasped out, sucking in air past his bruised trachea and struggling to remain conscious.

"That doesn't make sense!"

"I remembered the moment... he took... my soul from me."  
>Hands were on him again, he stared up into the shrunken face, the bone jawline not entirely unlike his own hollow mask.<p>

"I remembered the desert," he choked out, "Halibel's house... Nel, you, Dog..."

He slammed back again, white light popped before his eyes.

"I feel nothing for any of you, it isn't possible." Yammy growled out.

"Neither did I..." Grimmjow whispered, his eyes falling past Yammy to the Vandenreich king. "and I knew why...I knew who had taken feeling from me...and left me with...the pain of emptiness."

The king watched on, his powers dangerously uncontrolled, swelling in the room as he watched Grimmjow corrupt what he intended to be an incorruptible soldier. But still, he did not interfere, he had to know what would happen.

"I was liberated!" The fist pounded down, but not on Grimmjow, had it actually struck him, it probably would have killed him; not all of Yammy's massive strength was gone. He pounded down again and again against that long table where they had all sat, the Espada, proud and strong. Yet now that fixture of their fellowship was the birthplace of a new race of ruined beings. And it splintered, it cracked, and it broke. And with it broke the last of that pride and glory, the last of that kinship and allegiance.

Grimmjow lay in the splinters, Yammy howled next to him, in agony only the two of them could understand. That face so often full of arrogance, disdain, disinterest- was now only one of pleading, of pain. Eyes hid nothing of the reality he was enduring.

"It's gone." Came Yammy's tortured breath. "I don't even remember it, but its loss is all I know."

As injured as he was, Grimmjow pulled himself up to his knees before his old ally. "I know."

"Grimmjow, I can't...can't live like this...please..." He clutched Grimmjow's arm with red-painted fingers, "help me...make it end."

"Okay." Grimmjow reached out his hands and held Yammy's face between them. "I should have saved you." He whispered.

"Do it." Yammy begged.

"I'm sorry."

Grimmjow's muscles bunched, his arms went taut and jerked harshly. The crunch and snap of vertebrae scraping past one another in a direction they were not meant to go was heard in the silence, and the most powerful of the Espada dropped dead in the splintered remains of their shattered legacy.

Grimmjow lowered his arms and remained as he sat even when he felt the presence behind him, heard the scrape of wood on stone as the Vandenreich King made his way through the destruction toward him. He bent just enough to grab Grimmjow's chin and pull his face toward him.

Nothing in the man resisted, but the king felt the wet on his fingers before he saw it. "Remarkable," he breathed, seeing the tears that fell out of cerulean depths.

* * *

><p>"...that...was the death of an espada."<p>

"What, who?" Ichigo demanded Urahara over the soul pager.

"Yammy is dead. The king has the others. Get Rukia."

"Wait, what? We're not going to do anything?"

Urahara watched Grimmjow fall limp after a light touch to his temple from the king. He saw an inscrutable frown settle over his features and then white soldiers were filing in to collect all three. Then he tore his gaze away to see the faces of Ichigo and Renji looking right into a camera as they waited for him to answer.

"I am afraid we made a mistake."

"You said we had no choice!" Ichigo demanded. "And Rukia-"

"I know." The shopkeeper interrupted. "But this was all intentional. They already attacked you at your home and now-" His quick eyes picked up the movements on the screens. "Ichigo, they're closing in on you."

"I know, I feel it."

"Move. I'm coming to you."

With the Espada down, Urahara was the only one capable of opening a Garganta. He would have to reach them swiftly if they had any hope of escaping. But as he already knew, this room had not been left open by accident. The old shopkeeper unsheathed his zanpakuto just as the door to the control room banged open.

* * *

><p><strong>10 hours remaining<strong>

Nel woke again. She'd been in an out over the past few hours and every time she came to, she reached back to grip the strong arms wrapped around her. She could feel him shaking, and as much as she never wanted to leave the safety of his arms, she wiggled free to see what was going on.

"Grimmjow?" He was as he had been since they'd first woken in the cell. Halibel, though legs chained behind her and wrists weighed by even more restraints, held him, his shoulder resting in her lap, his head on her knee, staring out at the blank wall. She quietly ran her hand through his hair in a gesture of comfort, but in vain. His body shook all over, he'd been sick. He was inconsolable, and the cruel king had quickly figured out that he was much worse in their presence, hence he'd locked them all in here together.

Grimmjow had beaten him. He had somehow managed to get some piece of his soul back and then to corrupt Yammy, who had no hope of ever regaining his zanpakuto. The dark lord didn't have time now, to deal with him properly, but he could leave him and the three to suffer until he could return to them.

There was no way to tell which pain was strongest inside of Grimmjow. The memories of his own torture plagued him once more, the moment of separation from his soul. But he had killed Yammy. He had seen him endure the same pain as him, with no hope of ever escaping it. He may not have liked the other Espada, but he had been one of them. They had built their life, their routine, their little family, for lack of a better word, and when he'd escaped, he had left him behind. And because of it, Yammy had been destroyed, and Grimmjow had been forced to kill what was left of him.

"Does Grimmjow need to be healed again?" Nel asked, reaching for her mouth. She had done what she could for his neck and the back of his skull where Yammy had nearly killed him, but Halibel shook her head.

"Nel, I don't know how much you understand, but I need you to help me do something."

"Nel doesn't know how to grow up on her own." She said, guessing the request but Halibel had something else in mind.

"It's not that, Nel. They have them all, I felt it hours ago. Ichigo, the Quincy and the other humans. Even the soul reapers were captured. None of them escaped, we failed."

Nel gasped, Halibel had withheld the information so as not to have to deal with her hysterics but she pushed on now, not giving the child a chance to break out into tears. "You were once as powerful as me. I don't need you to grow up, but I do need that power. I watched one ally die today, and I won't let it happen to another."

"Whaaa, Grimmjow is dying?" The girl jumped forward to grab Grimmjow's arm. "GRIMMJOW don't die!"

"Child!" Halibel tried to reach her with her other hand but the chain pulled taught. Regardless, Nel was startled by her sharp yell and looked back to her. "You contain Pantera, whether you understand that or not. I don't believe Grimmjow can handle what has happened without Pantera any longer. We need to bring him back."

"But don't we need Ichigo?"

"Ichigo would help, but the part of Grimmjow's soul that may have rubbed off on him in battle is old, is feral, it is not the soul that became interlaced with your own. What he needs is in your spirit."

"But Nel doesn't know what to do!"

"Just don't leave him." There was an edge to Halibel's voice and even the child caught it. She knew their time was short. "You can do that, Nel." The door opened, white soldiers entered, she had felt them coming.

"The king wants him," a lieutenant ordered and the men moved forward to grab Grimmjow. They undid the chain on his leg and picked him up from Halibel's hold. Nel was the only one unrestrained and jumped at once after the men.

"Don't hurt Grimmjow!"

"He also expressed interest in that one," the lieutenant said, and someone easily caught Nel. She glanced back at Halibel but this is what she'd been told to do. Just stay with him. And that was something Nel could do.

* * *

><p>"Uryu. Uryu, are you awake?" The teen stirred in the dark of the cell. Chains rattled next to him and he pushed himself up a bit before wincing and sliding back to the ground.<p>

"Renji?"

"Yeah, it's me." He felt a hand rest on his back, the other reading his pain even if he couldn't see him very clearly. "How bad is it?"

"I..." he coughed, tasting copper. "Bad. They think I'll join them."

"What?"

"Because I'm Quicny...Renji I don't get it, I thought the Quincies were gone. But these guys..."

"It's like Halibel said. They're a mix, must have been recruited or maybe this king guy found out how to control Quincy power."

"Only a Quincy could do that."

"Well then maybe..." he let it hang. They didn't even know the man's name, but the king seemed to wield power without effort. He had a sword, possibly a zanpakuto, but yet there was something more to him. "Maybe he's a soul reaper and a Quincy."

He got silence from the teen.

"Uryu? Are you still with me?"

"Yeah, just...Renji is it possible? I mean, if I died, and crossed to Soul Society would I remain a Quincy or would my spiritual pressure develop in the form of a soul reaper?"  
>"Honestly, I don't know, but I would think you'd become a soul reaper, because only living humans can be Quincies, right? Maybe he's somehow both."<p>

"That would mean he's both alive and dead."

"Well, think about Ichigo."

Even in the dark the red haired lieutenant caught that flash of dull light on Uryu's glasses that almost always accompanied an idea. "Renji," he breathed, "Ichigo is the son of a soul reaper and a human. So perhaps, this man..."

"Is the child of a soul reaper and a Quincy."

The implications struck and they suddenly thought of the entire army, all of them hybrid-like. Grimmjow was the first of the reborn soldiers- converted but not made into anything more. He didn't come out of the process with new powers whereas other beings they had encountered seemed to be arrancar but also Quincy.

"His whole army, they are hybrid children." Renji concluded.

"Or they became hybrids by consuming the powers of another. He collected all that spirit from Yammy and Halibel. Maybe it wasn't all for making new arrancar, maybe he was feeding that power to other types of souls. In that case...oh no.."

"What? Uryu what is it?"

"They keep asking about Bankai. They tried to take Ichigo's Bankai. Maybe the king wasn't born that way, maybe he's a Quincy who consumed someone's Bankai."

"Shit. Is that possible?"

"I don't know Renji, it's all just speculation, but whatever he is, I think we can say for certain that my father and I are not the last of the Quincies."

* * *

><p>"A human-soul reaper hybrid, how interesting. Or a 'Fullbringer'? Which is it? They were an interesting bunch, those Fullbringers who survived their encounter with you. They weren't so lucky with me, however." The king smiled darkly and Ichigo pulled against his restraints all the harder.<p>

He didn't know where he was, it looked like a lab and he remember Renji and Uryu's accounts of their battle in such a place. He was on a table, his wounds bound together roughly to keep him alive. He had nearly died in their fight. His own powers were more than a match for the average Vandenreich soldiers, but they'd played on his weakness: Orihme. Chad had dropped first, defending her from a blue shimmering spear that had gone through his shoulder. Then, when Orihime had turned to heal him, someone had appeared out of no where and grabbed her by the hair, dragging her away from him and throwing her roughly into a wall. Renji and Uryu had been separated from them and he was terribly outnumbered. They kept attacking Orihime and he had ignored the threats to himself in order to reach her. By the time he had, she was unconscious, and he was bleeding from several wounds and a strike from behind had been enough to put him out.

Now he was here, under the scrutinizing gaze of this man. He caught a glimpse of Urahara as he was dragged through the room to somewhere else, a large stain of blood in his blonde hair. And not far, Rukia, Chad and Orihime were restrained just as he was. The humans were unconscious, Rukia barely awake; she'd taken a bad beating. It was to her the king moved next, looking at the air around her more than the girl herself.

"Yes, it is interesting how your spirits are tied together, like Grimmjow and the arrancar-child." Next he turned to Orihime and Chad. "And because of your own overwhelming spiritual pressure constantly bombarding these two humans, they also changed. A boy with a hollow arm and a girl with abilities unlike anything I have ever seen. No wonder Aizen took interest in her. But back to my question. Why is this weakling soul reaper's aura so similar to your own?"

Ichigo didn't think it could hurt to be honest. If it was just himself in this room, he would have remained silent, but the king might turn his attention to his friends so he decided to engage him for now.

"She gave me her powers once. It's how I became a soul reaper."

"No, you have your own power, you are a hybrid."

"But I could not access them until Rukia gave me hers."

"Hmmm," he thought this over, "so it is a completely different reason than Grimmjow's, but perhaps it is why I cannot take your Bankai."  
>"What does that mean? How could you take someone's Bankai?"<p>

"That doesn't concern you."  
>He looked at him as if bored now and turned to Rukia. "I wonder, if I destroyed her soul, would she be able to regain it through you? Is that where I've been going wrong? Is it that I have to destroy both your souls in order to truly make you obedient?" He mused to himself, Ichigo did not like where this was going but suddenly the king broke out of his thoughts and called for the nearby soldiers.<p>

"Get them. Grimmjow and the arrancar-child. I need to answer a question."

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Ichigo tugged against his restraints again, feeling a swell of anxiety for the pair.

"Rest while you can, Ichigo. If this answers my question, you and your little soul reaper friend are next."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Thanks for all the reviews guys and gals! <strong>_

_**Riza**_


	11. Day Break Chap 11

Grimmjow was too out of it to resit when his hands were chained behind him on the chair where he sat. He recognized this room as one of many that comprised Szayel's lab. He was faintly aware of other spiritual pressures nearby, soul reapers, humans, but as soon as he locked onto one dark force, he could feel nothing but that.

"Are you still upset with me, Grimmjow?" A hand ghosted over his bare back and slid into his hair until fingers intertwined in blue locks enough to pulled his head back painfully. "It's rude not to look at me when I'm talking to you."

"Let go of me."

"My, you are getting more life-like all the time, Grimmjow. Tell me, do you feel anger toward me? Do you actually feel something more than the loss of your soul?"

"All I know, is that I want you dead. I don't know if that is hatred or anger or simple logic but that is what I feel."

"Well, I'm going to try to fix that for you, Grimmjow. I'm going to get this right, right now, before our attack on Soul Society."

"How?"

Black eyes cut into a cruel smile and with intentional slowness, the king pushed back the dark shadow that cloaked him and turned to face his second prisoner.

"Nel." Grimmjow understood his intention. Her tiny hands were now clasped in iron shackles, even her ankles. She stood on the floor, shaking, but determined to stay strong for Grimmjow. "What are you going to do?"

"She exposed her true form to me last time. She transformed into an espada...with a Zanpakuto. I think you can guess the rest, Grimmjow. I will break her soul, like I did yours. I have no intention of her surviving, so I can do it quickly, but it will take with it the very last of Pantera. It will finally make you mine entirely."

"Why do you want me so badly?"

"I want to destroy you Grimmjow. You should not have been able to defy me, no one does. So you must suffer more than anyone because of it. But in practical terms, I must perfect my technique before I try it on someone like Yamamoto. So, if this works, I will simply know that I must destroy anyone who has ever loved someone enough to share part of their soul with them."

"_Love_?"

"Oh come, Grimmjow, I may not have known you for very long, but all those weeks we chased you through this labyrinth, you kept her close, you protected her even though she was a burden. Grimmjow, you destroyed your soul to save this child! No one would cause themselves that much agony for anything less than love. So I will destroy her soul, and her body, and if that isn't enough, I will do the same to the other third espada."

"Now, then." he stepped away from Grimmjow and looked to the child. "I need you to grow up."

"Nel doesn't know how!" She declared, for once with a bit of pride and _alot_ of defiance. "Nel will never help you hurt Grimmjow!"

"Is that so, child? Well then, will you _watch_ me hurt him instead?"

He took his time in drawing his long blade form his belt. Wide eyes filled with water and her lower lip trembled below those two little fangs that jutted up in her mouth. "Don't hurt Grimmjow!" She screamed.

"Nel." Grimmjow ignored the steel that approached him, "Don't transform. Whatever happens don't let him get your Zanpakuto."

"I know you're not quite all there, Grimmjow," the king placed one hand on his naked shoulder to steady it while the tip of his sword found its place just under his collar bone. "But I'm betting this is still going to hurt."

Azure eyes clamped shut, nearly as tight as his jaw clenched, but the pain came anyway, long, drawn out- a deliberately slow push past flesh and muscle, as if the king was actually severing each sinew one at a time, activating each nerve through his precision and cruelty. He made the blade jerk, quiver, cut and tear its way through his body rather than one smooth slide to the other side.

Grimmjow's screams were matched by Nel's wails.

"Stop! Stop it! Stop hurting Grimmjow!" She repeated between near-hyperventilating gasps.

The hilt met his shoulder, the blade sticking far out behind him, propped on the back of the chair to which he was chained. Sweat beaded over his body, he gasped, barely getting air, barley staying conscious. Fingers found his hair again and jerked his head upward.

"I know it's nothing like what you endured before, Grimmjow, but this must hurt." He rested his hand on the hilt and gently pressed down, shifting the blade inside the tortured man. Grimmjow cried out again, unable to hide his eyes by the way his head was held. Nel watched on in horror, wailing, screaming for help, for Ichigo, for Halibel, for anyone who could save her Grimmjow. The king watched her expectantly.

"Don't Nel." Grimmjow commanded through clenched teeth. She quivered, feeling her body on fire, but his pleading eyes begged her to stay controlled.

"Fine." The king gripped the blade again and pulled it clean out in one go. Grimmjow screamed, slumped forward as far as the chains would allow and threw up. "You enjoying the show, little one?" The king put his hand on the back of Grimmjow's neck, forcing him to remain slouched forward. "Because you are the only one who can end it!" Grimmjow gagged again before the king drug him back up and put his blade against his other shoulder.

It only got a few centimetres deep before they all felt it. Weeping eyes took in the look of utter suffering on her hero's face; the crimson tide drenching one side of him; the mess on the floor where he could not contain this pain. The paleness of his skin, slick with sweat where it wasn't slicked with blood, and the new roar working its way out of him as the cruel blade worked deeper into his flesh.

And so a little girl's cries for someone she loved, awoke the one being left who could save him.

"..No, Nel..." he breathed as he watched slack chains go taught around the new form in their grasp. She stood in the rags of her green cloak, hair hanging long and wild beneath the bone mask on her head. The blade dropped from Girmmjow's shoulder and the king turned in triumph.

"There she is." She stood completely exposed, arms quivering at the strain the chains applied to them, holding them out from her sides and the manacles painfully tight. And there, at her side, with that pair of crescent moons forming it's hilt, was her zanpakuto, her soul. But even when the dark king came to stand before her, he was met not with fear, not with pain or hostility, but a broad, feral grin.

"Declare Gamuza!"

The words were barely out of her mouth before a second wave of power rocked them, swarming past in hot, white light, nearly toppling Grimmjow's chair.

The Vandenreich king had made a mistake.

Her body transformed into that of a centaur. Chains meant for feet did nothing to contain hooves that slid easily from them. Bone grew over her hands and wrists like gauntlets, shattering the chains that had moments ago bit into flesh.

"Even in this form you are no match for me." The king bared his sword as she raised her Zanpakuto turned-javelin.

"I don't intend to fight you." She stated simply and his eyes shifted to watch the aim of her javelin point not at him, but behind him to the man strapped in the chair. "This is my soul." She proclaimed proudly, "And I am _his."_

She blazed in yellow power before releasing her Zanpakuto. It was so fast, but straight, unwavering, and Grimmjow hadn't really understood what happened until he felt the swell of power as if it was in his very core.

"YOU BITCH!" The king was screaming but all was lost to the sixth espada when he looked down his body and saw the tip of her soul in his middle, thrown straight and true, embedded in the chair behind him—right through his hollow hole.

He looked up for one second- for one millisecond, her face was visible through the all-consuming flame of power around his body and he saw her serene smile, her utter bliss at knowing that, she, Nel, had restored to Grimmjow Jaggerjaques his soul.

And then her eyes shut, she seemed to be falling but he lost sight of her again and then all he knew was the absolute consumption of his body in her power, her life source, her soul that was half his.

His mind raced back through sands and forests and desert and night; bottles of sake, fights with Yammy; tea at Halibel's, white hooded figures, poison, pain and fear. He saw Yammy, shrunken nothing, felt his neck snap in his hands, his life slip away. He felt loneliness, sadness, emptiness. He felt a weight on his leg, small fingers pressed into his calf. He saw a face, round, scared, eyes wide, watery, now angry, now sad, now breaking into a toothy smile that consumed her whole face. And then he saw the sword descending on her, felt that moment when he knew he would destroy himself to save this child. He felt Pantera, _remembered_ Pantera, that feeling of strength and wholeness that had evaded him all this time. He felt him break into nothingness to save him. He felt a pain so unreal it stole his mind, his heart, his ability to recognize friend from foe. It had taken everything in this world that meant anything to him.

And now it was all coming back.

* * *

><p>Kisuke Urahara lurched in his captors' grasp. All three of them stumbled under the weight of spiritual pressure that hit them and the whole of Las Noches trembled. It was not just spiritual pressure, it was something so much more, a power none of them had ever experienced. A final shock-wave blew past them, upsetting them all and the wily shopkeeper used it to his advantage not only to slip out of their restraining hold but also to reclaim his Zanpakuto strapped to one of their backs. Suddenly the two Vandenreich found themselves sprawled on the ground with the soul reaper's sword poised threateningly above them.<p>

"What...what happened? What was that?" One sputtered in his confusion.

"That," Urahara smiled, "is a soul being reborn—something I do not think this world has ever seen before—and a power I would not relish facing."

* * *

><p>A steam rose up from the form on the chair. His hair stuck out in all directions. Nothing of the javelin remained in his hollow hole; he was slumped forward, held in place only by the chains and unmoving, body still drenched in blood. The Vandenreich soldiers watched their king look him over and glance back at the child behind him, now as small and helpless as ever. He bent and picked her up, holding her by the back of her cloak. She was barely conscious, but he noticed her face had changed—the scar that had run through her mask and nose was gone.<p>

"I don't know what you did," he said, turning with her to look back to Grimmjow, "but you clearly failed."

"Gr..Grimmjow?" She asked weakly, seeing no sign of his zanpakuto, no sign that he was even still alive.

He examined her aura, she was weak, with the crack gone he felt no outpouring of power. She was a child now, truly, with no hope of transforming into an espada again. "Well brat, I guess I succeeded. Your powers are gone, you can't possibly give Grimmjow back his soul now."

"..no...NO...GRIMMJOW!"

"Shut up!" The king screamed at her. "You're of no use anymore. Someone please get rid of her."

He hefted her aloft for someone to take her from him but a low voice stopped him.

"Let her go."

The king paused, watching the figure in the chair.

"Still alive, Grimmjow?"

"I said," his head tilted back, and everyone stilled, held in breathless silence by the liquid blue flame lighting his gaze and turning his sharp features near demonic. Unadulterated loathing burned out of those eyes and dripped from his words, "Let. Her. Go."

None of the soldiers could escape the dark coil of dread born inside them not only from that devil's grin but by the falter in their fearless leader's smile.

Because he was just now seeing what he'd missed: no zanpakuto did not mean no soul.

Pantera might not yet be able to take on physical form, but he was definitely thriving inside his master.

"She did it..." and the king's anger took the form of dark shadows, lashing out, strangling everyone—even his own men- because this fury, this reaction to his own failure, was lethal. Nel cried when her own throat sealed off but for some reason the man in the chair before him, the cause of his wrath, remained untouched. "What is this?"

"I'm what you made me..." Grimmjow flexed his arms, and despite his wounds, despite the fact his spiritual pressure was not even half of what it used to be, he shattered the chains that restrained him and stood, "I'm a new animal, and I'm going to rip you apart."

The black power abandoned all others for him, tried to claim back what he'd made, but there was something about this blue-blazing creature before him that the Vandenreich king could not breach, not break, not defeat. Not right now.

He raised his sword. Grimmjow raised his hand. Dark eyes flared when his sword arm was caught and blue eyes narrowed, conveying a menace so profound it could almost cut the air.

"Impossible."  
>"Ha!" Grimmjow snarled. "No, impossible is you getting between me, and the people I choose to protect." Hot breath rolled over the king's face, his fist clenched around Nel but a second later he was sputtering from an elbow to his throat and Grimmjow had rolled away from him, child in his grasp. When the king struck again Grimmjow reached out and stopped his sword dead in the air, hand bare.<p>

"You're dead." Grimmjow snarled out.

"Oh, is that so?" He hadn't noticed it at first but now Grimmjow felt the hot sting in his palm and looked up to see the trickle of blood. The king drew back, opening up Grimmjow's hand and darted forward again, raking him in the ribs. The espada gasped out in pain and hot blood spewed down his side. "Tell me again Grimmjow, _who_ exactly was going to die today?"

Grimmjow stood his ground a second longer but glanced to the girl in his one good arm and knew he couldn't win this. He gave a sigh of frustration, and it fell to her ears like the sweetest sound in the world. It was the sound of her Grimmjow, her hero in all his glory. Her eyes sparkled with tearful joy, her two pointed teeth sticking over her lip and for the first time in her life, he smiled when he looked at her.

"Nel."

"Grimmjow?"

"Get away from me."

* * *

><p>Ichigo rolled free of his restraints with relief, but he found even more relief when Urahara pressed Zangetsu into his hands.<p>

"Are you alright?" They each asked when they saw the state of the other but there was no time to worry, their friends needed rescuing. Renji had an arm keeping Uryu upright but was already working on Rukia's straps and Halibel had Chad free. The three had arrived with Urahara who'd been near their cells when he'd escaped. Ichigo quickly undid Orihime's straps and scooped her up into his arms.

"ICHIGO!" The scream made them all freeze as Nel came speeding out of another room.

"Nel!" Chad quickly reached to take Orihime from the teen soul reaper and he ran forward meeting the wailing child. "Nel, where's Grimmjow?"

"Grimmjow sent Nel to find you! He needs your help!"

There was no hesitation. "Where?"

She pointed back in the other direction. Ichigo stood up from her and glanced back at the others. "Kisuke, get them out of here."

"Ichigo-"  
>"Please."<p>

"It's alright." Halibel stepped forward. "I'll make sure he gets home. Go."

The others weren't in much shape to argue. Renji and Chad weren't hurt too badly but they were needed to carry others back. So Ichigo just looked to Nel, "get them home, please. I'll get Grimmjow."

"Okay." She said in her small voice and before anyone had a chance to rethink the situation, the arrancar child opened the Garganta right under their feet and they were gone. Halibel and Ichigo now stood alone. They wasted no more time.

* * *

><p>"So you sacrificed yourself for her a second time?"<p>

Grimmjow leaned against the wall heavily. The other Vandenreich in the room were dead—mostly killed by the force of their own master's attack. Grimmjow himself still seemed immune to some extent- enough that he was still alive, but without a weapon and with several wounds now marring his body, he wouldn't last much longer. Still, he was confident Nel would understand what he'd meant since she'd scampered away without protest. He just had to hold out a bit longer.

"I didn't sacrifice myself you idiot. Don't you know why you can't take Kurosaki's Bankai?"

This gave the dark king pause. "What do you know about it?"

"You don't understand who he is."

"He's the child of a human and a soul reaper, a hybrid."  
>Laughter lit up the espada's face, the noise that barked out of him may have brought up some blood but he didn't seem to mind. He only stopped laughing when he was slammed to the ground. He lay coughing for a moment, but he felt a familiar riatsu washing out uncontrolled and heading in their direction.<p>

"You'll see for yourself, now won't you."

"ARGH!" The king lost all semblance of cool and slammed his sword straight down through Grimmjow's thigh. This did earn him an agonized scream which greeted the two who broke into the already destroyed room.

Water blast past them, a blinding slew, and out of it burst Ichigo Kuroskai. The water tugged at his body and dragged Grimmjow back and he screamed again at the resistance in his leg.

"Dammit." A soft curse reached him and he felt a hand close over his leg just above the wound. The water stilled, he could hear Ichigo pushing the king back- who was momentarily weaponless as his sword currently occupied a large space in Grimmjow's leg.

"Hold on." Halibel gave no more warning before pulling back on the hilt. Grimmjow's whole body lurched, he flung himself forward, grabbing her am with the biological urge to make this pain stop, but despite his sharp fingers digging into her tan skin she succeeded in pulling out the blade. Next thing she had her arm under his shoulders and she held her free hand out in the air.

"Kurosaki!" The orange-haired soul reaper didn't have much choice, some sort of powerful blow had struck him and he came flying their way. Halibel took the impact of his body and in an instant had the Garganta opened.

"Running away?" They heard the taunt from the king even as the cracks closed but he made no move to follow and the last thing they saw was a disdainful grin spread over his dark features.

They may have escaped this fight, but war was nearly upon them.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Hey all, sorry it took so long to get this one up, but I have not been feeling well at all lately and I find it really hard to focus on writing and making everything sound good when I don't feel good. Anyway, here it is, hopefully the chapter didn't suffer too much from my mushy brain. Thanks everyone, will try to update sooner this time!<em>**

**_Riza_**


	12. Day Break Chap 12

**Day Break - zero hours remaining**

"This is it." Rukia breathed next to Renji on the porch of Urahara Shoten. "The attack will begin in Soul Society any moment, and we aren't going to be there."

"We wouldn't be much good in this state." He said, moving his arm that kept him propped up slightly behind her, hoping she wouldn't mind the contact. He felt her small weight lean into the gesture.

"I dreaded this dawn for so long," she whispered, the red sun just cresting the horizon of Karakura and lighting up the white buildings in the distance but casting much longer, deep shadows on the ground, "but yesterday, I didn't think any of us would make it to see another sunrise. So now I don't know what to feel: relief or dread."

"How about victorious." They turned to see Uryu limping out with Chad's strong arm keeping him stable. The dark teen lowered his thin framed friend to the step as well. A moment later, Ichigo came out to join them, a patchwork of bandages but standing on his own.

"What do you mean?" Renji asked Uryu.

"I mean last night Grimmjow was a broken man and we had nothing on the Vandenreich. Now Grimmjow has his soul back and we have acquired valuable information about the enemy. It is more than we had before."

Renji thought it over and then nodded. He had Rukia back at his side, they had all lived. "Yeah," he sighed, "I guess that makes sense."

"Of course it does!" Ichigo said breaking the heavy mood with his sudden shout. "We're going to win this thing, no matter what."

"Right." They agreed. Rukia leaned back to look past Renji's arm.

"Is Orihime alright?"

"Tessai is taking care of her. She has a concussion." One of his hands fisted in anger but he didn't let it touch his voice.

"And the others?" Chad prompted.

"I was just about to go see."

It was a silent understanding when everyone rose. After everything that had just happened, no one wanted to hear this second hand. They made their way inside to the main room. They hadn't had time to get Grimmjow in back, he'd been bleeding out faster than Kisuke and Tessai could heal when Halibel had brought him through. When the wound in his leg had been stabilized, they began to notice the lack of scar in Nel's small face and her bone mask. They all wanted answers.

They found a very exhausted Urahara sitting cross legged next to the three arrancars: the very last of the espada. Grimmjow was awake, to their surprise, leaned back against the wall with his leg propped up on the coffee table while Urahara painstakingly sewed muscle and flesh together with a mix of thread and spiritual bindings.

Halibel was on his other side, wrapping a long bandage around his hand. The horrible wound in his shoulder had already been bound up and only a few cuts remained uncovered. Nel was at his feet, hands wrapped in his pant leg while she just stared at the other two working.

"There." Urahara sat back, wiping a tired hand over his face. "That should hold..if you don't move."

"Nel will make sure Grimmjow stays put!" The girl assured him.

"Great..." the sixth espada sighed, eyes half closing but the girl never lost her smile.

Kisuke now addressed those gathered. "I take it you want to know what happened?" Ichigo nodded. "Then I guess it's a good thing I sent the children to make tea."

The sun was well up, the day truly upon them by the time they'd finished their tea and Urahara finished relaying the story he'd gleaned from Nel with minor clarifications from Grimmjow.

"So where is Pantera?" Renji asked at the conclusion of the tale.

"Nel's spiritual pressure had indeed mixed with Grimmjow's but only contained a portion of his soul. When she transformed and gave him her power, it gave him the most concentrated dose possible of what was left of Pantera. Pantera, in turn, was exposed in the most direct way possible to his master and renewed himself in his body. Grimmjow has regained his soul, but much like when a zanpakuto is broken in battle, it takes time to recover. It will take much longer than that for Pantera to reform, but I am certain it will happen."

"Amazing." Rukia breathed, her eyes falling to the small girl. "But Kisuke, what about her scar? What does it mean that it is now gone?"

"Ah, now that was remarkable." No matter how worn out, the old scientist could never quell his interest in a good mystery or miracle. "Nel could not simply impart that piece of her that held the remainder of Pantera. She had to give Grimmjow everything she had, and she did. I must say, though I have never met her adult form, I think she must be very intelligent—she knew exactly what she was doing back then."

"Okay, so she gave him her power, how does that explain the crack in her mask disappearing?" Ichigo prompted.

"Just getting to that." Urahara said, accepting more tea from Jinta and taking a long drink before continuing. "We already decided that Nel's powers seeped out of the crack in her mask, keeping her in child form. Well the reason that crack could never close is because it was force open by that constant onslaught of power. When she gave up that power, however, that onslaught ceased, and the wound finally closed."

"What does that mean?" they turned at the gruff voice, Grimmjow looked like he might pass out at any second but he was holding on to hear this.

"It means she can grow up now, like a normal child would. She will almost surely regain her old powers in the process, but only as she grows."

"Nel's going to grow up?" the child squeaked in confusion. "But she already told you all she doesn't know how!"

"You don't have to know how this time," Urahara explained gently, "it will happen naturally."

She thought this over and looked back to Grimmjow. "Grimmjow always says Nel needs to grow up."

"Yeah and I also told you to leave me alone, but you never listen now do you?"

"Well if Nel _had_ listened she wouldn't have saved Grimmjow all those times, now would she?" She shot back with a pout. Grimmjow relented.

"Guess you're right about that kid. I owe you one, again."

"Then Grimmjow can never ever leave Nel!"

She jumped up closer to him, gripping his heavily bandaged arm. Blue eyes found Halibel first, before shifting down to the child and closing in a show of disdain that no one really bought.

"Fine." He sighed his musical sigh and she hugged his arm tight to her despite his cry of pain

"Wonderful!" Kisuke clapped his hands in exaggerated joy. "Brace yourself, Grimmjow, I hear the teenage years can be alot of work!"

Urahara laughed at his own joke when blue eyes widened in what looked like sheer terror but the moment was interrupted when Nel tugged a little too hard on his arm and set Grimmjow off balance. His leg slid on the table and he jerked in pain.

"Carefu,l" Halibel reached out to steady him and he hissed out at the slight movement.

"Guess I woke up just in time." A soft voice spoke from the other side of the room and Ichigo jumped to his feet when he saw Orihme up and about.

"Orihime, you shouldn't be up."

"By the looks of all of you, I've been asleep too long." She regarded Grimmjow for a moment and Nel's smiling face. She had missed the explanations but her innate ability to read others told her much had improved in the last harrowing hours, even if Grimmjow was a bloody mess right now. "I think this time, I _can_ help."

She brushed past Ichigo and came to kneel before Grimmjow. Her golden glow washed over him and he shuddered at the feel of his femur snapping back together, muscle and sinew repairing not just there but in his shoulder and many parts of his body. The relief ended a little early, Orihime held a hand against her head and Ichigo quickly urged her to lay down. She didn't protest this time and apologized to Grimmjow but he moved his leg from the table and, though still tender and sore, the bone was firm and the rest of him felt great relief.

"Thank you." he sighed out. Gingerly, he came to his feet and let out a breath when his leg held.

"Orihime you shouldn't have pushed yourself." Ichigo was saying but she just smiled, seeing the glow in Nel's face as she took her place at his leg and Halibel quickly rose when she saw Grimmjow was still shaky.

"I had to." she said simply. And he turned back to Grimmjow and Halibel.

"Will you stay and fight with us?"

Grimmjow looked sideways to those harsh green eyes. He couldn't break the habit of looking to her for answers after she had directed them through those long days fighting the Vandenreich.

"Decide for yourself." He felt her supportive arm withdraw and nearly stumbled as she swept out of the room. Their levity died, the events of the night and seriousness of everything settled on them once more. Grimmjow stood there a moment longer before following after her.

"Should we go after them?" Ichigo asked but Urahara shook his head. "No. I think they both need to sort a few things out." But his smile came back slightly as he looked on them all. "Thank you, everyone. This battle with the Vandenreich, it is not wrong to be frightened, but we witnessed a miracle last night. We saw hope. The Vandenreich lord himself, who struck the espada down time after time, couldn't easily defeat Grimmjow once his soul was restored. That reunion- that is something I don't think can ever be broken again. And neither will we break. We have gained two allies and after yesterday, that might be all it takes to sway the tide of this war."

His speech was unusually hopeful for him, but no one argued, no one wanted to break the spell and they all turned to where the two had left, hoping that that bond was just as strong.

* * *

><p>"Halibel..." Grimmjow moved to her side on the edge of the porch. "I think we should stay together."<p>

"I wasn't going to leave." She muttered back, voice hollow behind her mask. "We _all_ decided to stay together back then, I won't go back on that now."

Her eyes stayed forced ahead but she caught him move away from her in her peripheral vision. He sat down hard on the steps, lacing his fingers into his blue locks and shutting his eyes. Tiny hands slid from his leg and Nel was just small enough to squeeze between his knees and look up at him.

"Grimmjow?"

"Go away Nel." Even though she usually took pleasure in the words, they bit out much harsher and more sincere than usual.

"But you said you wouldn't leave!"

"Nel please just leave me alone!" He covered his face and she backed off, disturbed by this show of emotion she thought gone once his soul came back.

"What's wrong with Grimmjow?" Nel wailed, tugging at his pant leg.

"He's growing up too, Nel." Halibel was next to him again, watching the slight tremors running through him. For a moment it was hard to tell if she was angry or sympathetic, her green eyes conveyed little, but she sat next to him, Nel nudging over to give her room. "He's gone through alot of changes, body and mind, and all those years he pushed everything down and just turned it into anger don't mean anything now."

Her words weren't really for Nel. She was trying to give some reason to Grimmjow for why he felt this way. She watched his fingers knot tighter in his hair until she placed her hand on the back of his neck, over that puckered pink flesh and those terrible scars. She heard him gasp out, trying to hold back emotions that were all but foreign to him.

"I fucking killed him." He finally said, voice thick. "I left him there and then I killed him."

"He didn't have any hope of getting his soul back, not like you. It was merciful."

"I didn't even like him." He said it more to himself, in confusion, in pain he couldn't explain.

"But he was one of us, so it hurts."

"NO!" He slammed his fists into his knees and launched himself up and away from them both.

"Walking away from us won't let you escape the pain this time, Grimmjow."

"I know that dammit, I'm not an idiot." But he wouldn't turn to face her.

"Do you remember all of it? All that time without your soul."

"...yeah."

"Then come back here."

"Don't expect me to follow orders like I did before."  
>"I don't. But I'm asking you to come back."<p>

He growled low, but he did as she said. "What?" She stood up slowly, before him, studying him. His naked torso was still bandaged, the way he stood showed her he was still in pain, still felt the exhaustion of the last days and her eyes caught every scar that was left uncovered. He really needed new clothes, she thought briefly, what was left was torn and hung too big on his shrunken frame,. All that pain he'd suffered, and yet he didn't know how to suffer emotions. None of the other espada had. It's why she detested fighting, and why they couldn't understand that. Because battle brought emotions; outcomes could have higher costs than limb or life. Guilt, memory, these were also scars you bore even if they couldn't be seen. And she was watching him learn all of this for the first time. He really was like a child. And he would have to see Nel learn all of this in turn, as she grew up.

His hands were shoved into his pockets, shoulders slouched. "You don't have to pity me now," he said when he could muster a little more gruffness in his voice. "I ain't broken anymore."

"I don't pity people Grimmjow. I didn't pity you then and I don't pity you now. Your pain before...it was difficult to watch that. But I never acted out of pity. I chose then not to abandon you, like you have chosen not to abandon that child. I won't go back on that choice and I don't blame you for killing Yammy."

He tried to remain firm, tried to hold steady before her. But he did remember all that time without his soul. He did remember her soft touches, her gentle hold. At the time he didn't think it had helped, but now he found himself half expecting her to reach out and protect him when he was feeling this way. But she didn't move, she was waiting for him.

"I..." He felt his voice shaking, felt heat rushing into his face, blurring his vision. He didn't want to feel it. He tried to swallow it back and brushed past her. "I'm fine." He spat out, but his leg jolted with a sudden weight and he didn't even have to look to know Nel had his pant leg.

"Why is Grimmjow sad?"

"I'm not sad." he said giving a shake of his leg but to no avail so he leaned down and picked her up in his arms just to get his leg free so he could keep walking.

"Nel can tell."

"Shut up."

"It's okay, Nel gets sad about Dondochakka and Pesche too. And Dog."

"I said I'm fine!" He growled moving up the steps.

"Then why is Grimmjow holding Nel so tight?"

He stopped on the top step and looked down at her. The arm supporting her had stiffened against her and he tried to relax his hold but his whole body was tensed up. He watched her expectant, round eyes, hated how they could read him so easily, but at the same time he knew he never throw that away, not for anything. He felt his breath choke and he couldn't look away from those waiting eyes.

"Because...we were all we had...and I..." He just turned a fraction, just barley an inch but he felt Halibel's arms around him the second he sought them out. He sank into the double embrace- child hanging around his neck, hands clasped over the scarred reminder of just how much he had endured- how much he had changed. And Halibel's firm grasp keeping him from falling off that step.

"Did I do the right thing?" He asked into her shoulder past a sniff. Even now he didn't really want to let the tears out but he no longer had much of a choice and she felt them against her skin despite his effort.

"Yes, Grimmjow. You did right by him."

"Then why do I feel like this?"

"That's something you'll figure out for yourself." She whispered back. She held him for a while longer until something gave and suddenly she was holding alot more than she expected and had to quickly lower him back to the step.

"I'm okay," he said when she pulled back to check him over; he had a hand clenched over what was left of the wound in his leg. "Just a spasm." He took a shaky breath and eased Nel from around his neck.

"Is Grimmjow really okay?" She asked skeptically.

He just shook his head, running a hand through his hair and shaking off this foreign feeling. He had no memories of ever crying before he killed Yammy.

"Good. Because Nel never wants Grimmjow to be sad or hurt or lonely again!"  
>"Thanks kid." he dropped his hand on her head but turned to Halibel. "But we have a long fight ahead of us. They took our home, Halibel, and they took one of us. We're going to fight them, right?"<p>

She nodded. "Yes."

"And these guys," he said, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder and thinking of one orange haired teen in particular, "are really alright? We can trust them?"

"I did when I had to, and it's the only reason you have your soul back."

"Fighting with Soul Reapers, eh?" He let that feral grin slide over his face. "Alright then," he stood up, Nel in arms, and Halibel watched him point to open sky, "We're coming for you, you Vandenreich bastards. You better be ready."

-End-

Look for a continuation of _Day Break_ when the manga has developed the Vandenreich story line a bit furhter

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><p><em><strong>Well, we made it to day break, so that's the end for now, I didn't know whether to put "end of part one" or to just plan to start a sequel but my thought process is this: I want to come back to this once Kubo has laid out some more about the Vandenreich and we see what happens in the war. Problem is, I have no idea how long all of that will take, so perhaps in a few weeks I will be satisfied or find new inspiration for a whole new story following Day Break, or perhaps I will only be able to give an epilogue or one shot. So, in sum, this story was always meant to conclude here, at daybreak before the way, but I will be posting something more later, I just don't know how much more or in what form. I don't even know whether to put the story status at complete in case I do want to just ad an epilogue later...<strong>_

_**Anyway, thanks sooo much for keeping with this story, I quite liked it, and I would really appreciate feedback particularly pertaining to the time jumping that was going on at the beginning of this story since it was the first time I really used that style and I just wanted to know what people thought of it. It would be a great help as an aspiring writer! **_

_And if you're looking for more Grimmjow, check out my new story _Mask_, it's very different from anything I've put on this site before but I am excited about it and I have another Grimmjow & Ichigo story in the works as we speak!_

_**Thanks again,**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**Riza A. Winters**_


	13. PREVIEW for Part II

Grimmjow shifted the sleeping form on his chest with as little movement as possible, leaving her curled on the mattress as he slipped from the room without a sound. Back in the main part of the shop, he leaned over the candy counter and pulled out the nicked and notched blade that was propped there with a few others. Weighing it in his hands for a few moments, he swung though the air and gave a few practice jabs. It was no replacement for Pantera, but it would do for now. He tightened his borrowed belt before sheathing the weapon at his side and heading for the front door.

"Grimmjow said he wouldn't leave Nel."

His shoulders tensed at the heartbroken voice behind him and he turned with great reluctance to see that already tear-streaked face.

"Nel, you know I have to go."

"B-but Nel doesn't want you too!" Her sorrowful voice broke into that familiar wail and he hurried to kneel before her and stop the noise before it woke the whole shop.

"Hey." he soothed as best he could with his naturally harsh and gruff voice. "Come on, kid, give me a break." She only quieted the slightest bit when he put a hand atop her head. "It's not like I want to go back there."

"Then why does Grimmjow go?"

"For the same reason Ichigo does, and Halibel, and the others; to fight the bad guys."

"The scary Vandenreich?"

"Yes."

But instead of understanding, this only made her lip tremble more beneath those pointed teeth and her words stutter out in even more desperate sobs. "But they nearly killed Grimmjow! Nel doesn't want him to fight them again in case they kill him!"

"Nel I..." He looked around to make sure no one was listening in on them and raised both hands to hold the sides of her small, round face. "I have a secret and I need you to keep it for me, okay?"

Her trembling ceased at once and her eyes shone bright even in the darkness of the shop. "Nel will!"

"Okay good. The only reason I'm still fighting, is because of that promise I made to you, Nel. I said I'd take care of you, forever. Well, I can't do that while those bastards are still breathing. You won't be safe, none of us will. So that's why I have to go tonight, and the next time and the next time. You understand?"

"Grimmjow is fighting for Nel?"

"Yeah, he is."

He knew his mistake even before the wail came. She hurled herself against him, sobbing in incoherent joy.

"Damn." he whispered out, standing with the girl attached to his neck. "Shoulda seen that coming." He moved back to his room and pulled back the sheets before dislodging the child and forcing her to take a few deep, calming breaths. She eventually quieted and fell back against his pillow.

"So Grimmjow promises to come back?" She whispered up even as her eyes began to close in sleep.

"Yes, Nel, so try to be good for Orihime, okay?"

"Nel will try."

"Good." She was under by the time he pulled the sheets over her minute form. Moments ago his body had been revved for the fighting that awaited on the other side, his skin aflame with that ancient blood lust that still existed inside of him. But now all he felt were the cold shadows of night and a heavy weight on his chest as he watched her steady breathing and forced himself to leave the room.

But this was war. And war wouldn't wait for sentimentality.

**COMING SOON: "The Dawn Breakers" part, II of the "Day Break Trilogy.****"**

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><p><em>Well there you have it, I have officially decided to go ahead with this story and give the Vandenreich story line my own conclusion. I have almost completed part II and I wish I could tell you exactly when it is coming out, it will be soon, I just have alot going on right now so I wanted to at least let everyone know what I decided to do with this story since I kind of left it unclear at the last chapter of Day Break. So I hope you have enjoyed this little tidbit, sort of a previewinterlude to the next part of the story._

_Thanks!_

_Riza._


	14. Dawn Breakers Chap 1

**The Dawn Breakers**

_Part II of the Day Break Trilogy_

**19 weeks later**

A hand clamped over a tiny form, hauling her from the ground even as the gold shimmer of light that had shrouded her dissipated in the man's wake. He smiled wide, clutching the small burden and nudging the unconscious woman sprawled on the pavement to make sure she was out.

"That was too easy." He jibbed as the girl in his grasp twisted around to face him from where she hung in the folds of her cloak. But the fright he expected to see in her eyes was absent, and instead he was met with a wide, toothy grin and eyes narrowed with devilish mirth.

"You should not be smiling aarancar-child. Do you know who I am?"

"Doesn't matter." She chirped. His thin lips pulled even tighter in frustration, dark eyes cutting dangerously,

"Oh? You don't think so?" But his menace did nothing to deter her confident grin.

"No. Because you're dead."

He caught the briefest blur of blue motion in the reflection in her eyes and dropped his burden to defend himself. Air rushed past him, he raised his sword to counter but found himself facing the empty street, the child's gleeful laughter sending a rush of furry through him and he turned back slowly to meet the newcomer.

"Nel tried to tell you. Now you're gonna die." She was perched in a pair of strong arms, her small hands fisted in the sweat soaked cotton of his tattered shirt. She hadn't taken in the blood that snaked out of his hair, the tear from collar to ribs in his once white t-shirt. She hadn't noticed the way that old injury in his thigh seemed to be causing him to put more weight on the left, or his heavy breathing that indicated he'd travelled a long way to get here. No, all Nel knew was he was back, she was in his arms, and that Grimmjow Jaggerjaques would not allow to live anyone who threatened her.

"So the sixth is back from Hueco Mundo is he?" The Vandernreich soldier addressed him.

"Dachs, Commander of the Midnight Squadron. So you didn't go down with your men afterall?"

A flush of red touched those pale cheeks and one hand balled tight in a fist while he raised his other, that Quimcy charm dangling from his wrist.

"So it was you who slaughtered my men?"

"What, don't tell me you didn't know. That's why you're here, afterall, right? For a little revenge." He glanced down at the girl in his arms.

"I want you to suffer, Grimmjow. I want you to feel pain like-"

"Like what?" The voice was right next to him, how had he not seen him move? "Like having your soul torn apart? Like being alive but dead at the same time? Oh, I think I might know a little something about that?" Grimmjow had a hand wrapped in Dachs' collar, and the soldier's eyes worked their way down the bare skin of his arm, seeing those long, gruesome scars.

Grimmjow's whole body was shaking he'd gotten so angry. Behind him, Nel stood where she'd been left, that devilish smile gone now and the slightest traces of fear in her as she saw her hero's maddened state. It was no longer a game, it was war, violence and horror. Terrible memories returned to her as well and all the terror of this war shook her all over again.

Grimmjow never let go of his opponent—no his prey- it was all over for the commander even if he didn't know it. He hadn't yet noticed what hung on Grimmjow's hip, what Nel stared at with wide eyes not having seen it in so long.

"You ran away from your men back then because you're a coward just like your bastard King went running home when he got burned in Soul Society. And now you came here to take out your cowardly rage on the people I care about? Well then, why don't I introduce you to a friend you haven't met yet," a malevolent smile grew on Grimmjow's face, "and trust me, if anyone wants revenge, it's him." Dachs' body jerked at the intrusion he hadn't even felt coming. The blade slid through his spine and worked through his torso, cracking its way through his sternum and rising above his shocked eyes. The silver-white blade practically glowed beneath the sheen of crimson on its surface. Grimmjow leaned close and hissed in the dying's man's ear, "Meet Pantera."

He watched the slow register of shock before the light left the commander's eyes and Grimmjow let him fall, shaking his blade free with unmasked disgust. This was war. He had no mercy.

He did his best to flick the blood from his glimmering zanpakuto before shoving it into the sheath that rested loosely on his hips, belted over his ragged white shirt and black pants.

"Ichigo's gonna kill me for ruining more of his clothes." He muttered with a half smile before he looked up to see Nel wide eyed and silent and suddenly his boiling rage and the satisfaction of the kill were replaced by a cold clenching in his gut. "Nel..."

He hadn't meant for her to see him like that. It had been a long few days on the other side, practically every minute spent in the heat of battle, ripping the enemy to shreds only to find another wave of them coming, hear another explosion in the distance or watch another piece of Hueco Mundo fade away as it was absorbed by the Quincy powers. And when he returned to this world, nearly untouched by a war that raged in other dimensions- he found it very difficult to turn that part of himself off, to not be a soldier on the front lines. He shut his eyes for a second and forced it all down before approaching her and kneeling. He looked her over, seeing no harm done and lay a hand on her bone mask.

"You okay, kid?"

It was all he needed to do to get that smile back and she threw herself onto him. He just stood with her, one hand easily enough to hug her back and keep her against him as he moved to the second figure on the ground that had been all but forgotten.

"Shit, Orihime." He knelt next to her and put his fingers to her neck, the pulse was steady, he saw nothing but a bruise on her forehead. "Nel." He set her down again in order to scoop Orihime carefully into his arms. "What happened?"

"Orihime was taking Nel to get her new favourite food: ice cream! But that soldier attacked us! Orihime used her powers but the man took them away somehow and knocked her out!"

"It's okay, Nel. It's what they do- they leech of the spiritual pressure around them, which includes Orihime's powers. Urahara knows this, he shouldn't have left you two on your own."

"Clogg man isn't here! He left for Hueco Mundo yesterday."

"What? He shouldn't have left until I got back. Who's here then?"

"Ichigo and Rukia."

"Great." Grimmjow had Orhime safely gathered in his arms and Nel knowingly took hold of his pant leg. They flashed through the air and landed in the yard of Urahara Shoten.

"Orhime!" Grimmjow winced, already anticipating the hysterics that would come with their arrival. Ichigo tried to run forward but fell completely flat and Grimmjow saw now why the shifts must have changed: Ichigo was wearing a cast from foot to hip and there seemed to be bandages layered all under his clothes.

"Damn, what happened to you?" He asked the struggling teen.  
>"Orihime first." Grimmjow moved past Ichigo who was stuck as he was on the shop floor and set Orihime down on a mattress.<p>

"Soul Reaper!"

Rukia was already on her way, hurried out of the back and took in the situation in a glance. She at once began a kido spell to assess the damage. "What happened?"

Grimmjow explained and Rukia nodded when he finished, drawing back her kido. "It's not serious, some ice and a bit of healing and she'll be just fine."

"Good." Grimmjow turned to Ichigo now and after watching him fight to get up for a few more moments, leaned down and hauled up.

"Thanks."

"How did this happen?" Grimmjow asked, waving a hand to indicate the whole of Ichigo.

The teen hobbled a few steps to lean against the shop counter and sighed tiredly. "I was careless. I thought I could handle the Commander of the Dawn Squadron.

"Lothure? You tried to take Lothure and his brutes on by yourself? Idiot."

"Halibel told me you finished the whole Mindnght Squadron by yourself!"

"They were a bunch of half wits and half breeds. The Dawn is gonna take alot more and you knew it, so why take the risk?"

Ichigo shrugged like a scolded child.

"Ichigo?"

"I'm tired of it, Grimmjow. I'm tired of living life in shifts- getting home only to see you, Halibel, Urahara,Chad, Renji, Rukia, even my dad, leaving to fight the war I just left behind. And every time I come back, I think, what if one of you are killed by someone I didn't get while I was there? What if the Dawn takes someone else I care about?"

"What happened to Uryu is not your fault. And you know they can't have killed him, they wanted him, so he's still out there, you can still save him."

"Can I? Look at me, I made a bad decision and now I'm useless here, Orhime even got hurt on my watch, Nel could have too. Soul Society is still closed off to us, we have no idea what the war is like on their end and we are still no closer to finding a way into the Vandenreich's world than we were five months ago when all this Hell started."

His knuckle were white where they gripped into the counter. He glanced Rukia's eyes, widened by hearing the defeat in his voice, Nel too, was soberly quiet and he practically flinched from the judgemental stare he got from Grimmjow. He shook head. "Forget it, I know. I know we'll get Uryu back, we'll find a way to defeat the Vandenreich."

"That's better." Grimmjow stepped back from him and Ichigo just noticed his state- there was nothing shocking about the collection of minor wounds he had- they all returned like that after a few days of endless fighting in Hueco Mundo- but it was the torn clothes that Ichigo was eyeing.

"Those were good pants!" He cried out. "Dammit, Grimmjow would you stop stealing from my closet!"

"Okay sure, next time I'm in Hueco Mundo, I'll go up to Las Noches and just stroll into my old place and pick out some of my old clothes."

"Fine, then I'll get you some of your own, just stop ruining everything I own."

"Fine."

"There." Rukia sighed and leaned back from Orhime. "She's sleeping, she shouldn't have more than a head ache when she wakes up. How are you Ichigo?" Rukia came to his side and poked an arm, he winced.

"Why didn't Orihime heal you?" Grimmjow asked.

"This wasn't the first time she was attacked recently." Rukia explained. "Apparently the King wants her powers. She was severely weakened and has only just recovered enough to form her shield. Now it sounds like she'll have to wait again for her spiritual pressure build up."

"Damn." Orihime's powers had been an invaluable asset for the last nineteen weeks and Grimmjow couldn't deny he'd been looking forward to her healing touch when he returned.

"Are you alright, do you need healing?" Rukia looked him over, her eyes coming to rest on something she hadn't noticed at first. "Is that...Pantera?"

"It is." He smiled as he pulled him from his sheath. They both gasped out at how brilliantly the blade shone, its pristine, almost white shimmer was very different from the jagged rough blade Ichigo remember biting into him on several occasions.

"He's changed." He breathed.

"You're right." Grimmjow said seriously, the smile fading. "And I wanted to talk to Urahara about that."  
>"Does it feel different?" Rukia asked.<p>

"Stronger. But in every other way, the same. He's Pantera through and through, but we're connected like we never were before."

"How did it happen?" Ichigo asked.

"I don't really even know. I took a hit, was pretty stunned, and I reached for him like I always would because my mind wasn't working right and I had forgotten, but he was there when I grabbed for him, at my side, like he'd never left. Except he was like this and..."

"And what?"

"I can't use Resurrection."

"No?"

"I tried. He has the power but nothing happens, it doesn't feel right."

"Do you think your powers may have changed?" Rukia asked. "Maybe you have to relearn them, maybe your old Resurrection won't be the one you have now."

"I never thought of that." He admitted. "Maybe you're right. This is what I was hoping to talk to the old man about."

"It's still amazing." Rukia sighed, still marvelling at the blade. "I'm happy for you, Grimmjow." Words she'd never thought she'd say, flowed easily from her now, in the heart of war times.

"Nel is happy too!" She did not like being forgotten and climbed up Grimmjow until she was on his shoulder. "And Nel can help Ichigo if Orhime can't!"

"No, Nel, don't!"

Grimmjow winced when the spew hit Ichigo but couldn't help the twitch of a grin.

"There!" Nel said proudly as Ichigo stood drenched in her clear healing substance and looking absolutely repulsed. But then he caught the smile on Grimmjow's face and narrowed his eyes,

"Hey Nel, Grimmjow's hurt too."

* * *

><p>Nel sat quietly at the foot of the couch where Grimmjow was stretched. He was tired, much more tired than he was letting on. Upstairs, Rukia was watching over Ichigo and Orihime. The house was quiet. A family had been torn apart by this war. Ichigo and his father hardly ever saw each other unless they stumbled into each other on the battlefield. Ichigo's sisters were far away, sent to stay with different relatives and kept under the watchful eye of one of the Visoreds who had still been in this world when everything started. The house was so quiet. Since Tessai was gone for a few days trying to dig up ancient secrets and learn about where the universe of the Vandenreich could be, they decided to return to the Kurosaki home to let the humans rest up in comfortable beds.<p>

Grimmjow felt his eyes shutting but resisted. The war had raged for months and yet the human world was of little interest to their enemy and had thankfully gone untouched- until now. Within just a few days, there had been two attacks. They wanted Orihime.

Well, he had to at least hope this meant that the king had gotten seriously wounded when Yamamoto threw him out of Soul Society. Not that they were even sure that's exactly what happened since all their information about the Soul Reapers' universe came from what they overheard or tortured out of the enemy. The walls to that universe had remained closed this entire time. It pained Renji and Rukia greatly. They had tried opening a Senkaimon from Hueco Mundo but that had failed just like their attempts here. It was hard to tell if it was the Soul Reapers now who kept their walls closed or if it was the Vandenreich. The Quincies didn't seem to have any trouble getting in and out of Soul Society from their universe- just another reason their little resistance group wanted into the Vandenreich home-world so badly.

For now though, Hueco Mundo was their only battle ground. Halibel and Grimmjow had decided right away they wouldn't stand by and watch the Vandenreich subjugate their world. Not like they had with Aizen. They were done being ruled, would never again don the clothes he'd chosen for them, or pay heed to the numbers he'd given them. They were free, and they would fight to free their world to the end. And Ichigo and the others fought with them, because it was their only way of striking back, at hoping to help their friends. They all wanted to find a way to the Vandenreich universe, to their king, and stop this now before the whole universe fell under them.

They had done fairly well for themselves, left their mark on the Quincy army. Halibel had taught their new allies all about the geography of their world: Hueco Mundo was a land not be underestimated or simplified into a mere desert. They had learned of all the squadrons who named themselves by the times of day.

The Vandenreich soldiers spent their time in Hueco Mundo routing out evils none of the espada had even ever heard of, forgotten creatures buried deep in the sands or in distant craggy cliffs or under the Menos Forest. Some of these beasts they converted into hybrids, others they consumed and others still they used for darker purposes. The Dawn Squadron had even created their own Calvary by taking control of adhuchas long lost in the deserts, who's minds were no more than beasts and had broken like the horse-beasts of the world of the living. Since then, the Dawn had quickly become the biggest threat, and one glance at Ichigo today was a reminder of that. Their commander, Lothure, would not be taken easily, and his men would hardly let you get close to him. But on a certain level Grimmjow understood Ichigo's urge to engage them. It would be Hell on Soul Society if the Dawn crossed over, which they no doubt would be doing very soon.

War had changed the teen Grimjow had once fought nearly to the death. He had not hardened- his desire to act with honour and give the enemy a fair fight had not changed, and he did not participate nor even really know about how Urahara, Halibel and Grimmjow went about extracting the information they needed. But he was not the overconfident hero he had once been. War had humbled him. Before, he could fight each enemy one on one until he got to the boss-man and threw him down. It was a pattern he'd followed since he'd gained his powers so he didn't know how to deal with failure, with frustration, with utter exhaustion and the never-ending nightmares of all the battles and the blood. It was as he watched the boy changed that Grimmjow realized just how young Ichigo was. At times, he actually missed that arrogance.

But they had taken Uryu. Grimmjow hadn't been there, he'd found them after. The teen Quincy had been with Renji and Halibel in the Northern Desert. According to what Halibel could piece together in her memory, the King himself had come to get him. When Grimmjow arrived, the Twilight had been closing in to finish off the pair. They'd made it out with all limbs intact but it was a serious blow to have lost the Quincy. He had proven a strong ally but they also knew hat the King desired him and now he had him.

That was five weeks ago, and Grimmjow couldn't help but wonder if his capture had anything to do with the second mass strike on Soul Society since the war began. The initial strike had failed- or at least they assumed it had, since if they had succeeded in destroying Soul Society in a mere day like the King had first boasted, there would be no war. Then, last week, they began to hear rumours that the King had gone to face Yamamoto. Did Uryu's capture give him something he needed to do that? The timing seemed too close. But once again, the King had been thrown back, and they had to hope if they were coming after Orihime, his injuries were grave.

"Nel wants to take Grimmjow to try ice cream some time."

Grimmjow was pulled out of his thoughts by the tiny voice.

"What is it?"

"Ice cream is cold and sweet and colourful. It tastes really good! Orihime takes Nel to get some all the time!"

"She does? Is it good for you?"

"Nel doesn't know."

"Well human food isn't enough for you, remember that and eat what Urahara makes for us."

"Nel does!" She squeaked and seeing now that he was not going to fall asleep just yet, jumped up onto his stomach. He lurched a little, deep bruises triggering pain, but he didn't say anything as she settled down, laying her head on his chest, her tiny body barely a noticeable weight on him when she wasn't moving.

"Yo Nel." He shifted slightly, pulling Pantera out of his sheath and holding him above where they lay. "Do you remember Pantera from before?"

"Uhuh." Her eyes were tired now too but her gaze remained fixed on the beautiful blade.

"Do you think maybe it's your power that changed him? Does it seem...familiar or anything to you?"

"Nel doesn't know, Nel doesn't remember being an espada."

"Hmm."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just didn't want to think that you ended up losing part of yourself for me."

"Nel doesn't mind." She smiled tiredly. "Nel saved Grimmjow and Grimmjow will be with her forever, that's all Nel cares about."

"Right, then get some sleep, kid." He lowered the sword but didn't put him back in his sheath. Rukia would be awake to stay on watch but he wanted to be ready in case something came, so he shut his eyes as he was, child on chest, sword in hand.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Well I'm back with the second installment of the Day Break Trilogy, the Dawn Breakers. Hope it wasn't too slow, but the action will pick up soon, I promise! Chapters should be coming out pretty regular now!<em>**

**_Riza_**


	15. Dawn Breakers Chap 2

"So, what does Grimmjow think?"

Grimmjow made a strange face as he swallowed the ice cream Nel had given him. Orhime and Rukia had gone for supplies and returned with a tub of the chocolate, cold smooth substance he was now consuming. The other two women watched as well, curious to see what an espada would think of one of earth's common, yet wonderful delights.

"Not bad." He finally said, Nel's face lighting up. "But odd." Sweet and cold were two things he was not used to eating. There weren't really any foods that needed to be kept in a freezer in Hueco Mundo, nor anything that had been flavoured so deliciously. He could probably get used to eating this way if human food held any sustenance for hollow souls.

"Nel's turn!" She had a giant spoon which she stabbed into the tub and brought out with a massive scoop that she somehow managed to fit in her mouth.

"You're going to get an ice cream headache." Orihime warned. "And don't eat it all, I want to take some up to Ichigo." She got a bowl and began scooping some out. "Oh, and Grimmjow, Ichigo asked me to get those for you."

She nodded to a bag on the floor. He pulled it open and found a pack of white t-shirts and several pairs of black pants. Ichigo must have noticed how he always went for those two colours when pilfering from his closet, even if the espada hadn't realized himself that he couldn't quite escape his old uniform.

Halibel too, seemed to have followed the same trend in her choice of a black tank and white jacket and shorts. She often still wore the jacket zipped high around her face, however, hiding her bone mask and breastplate.

"Thanks." He watched the girls for a moment, his thoughts from the other night returning to him, and he took the bowl of ice cream from Orihime. "I'll take it up to him." his tone was clear, he wanted to speak to Ichigo alone.

The teen was on his bed, staring out the window. There was no doubting his thoughts.

"You weren't wrong to try to stop the Dawn."

Ichigo turned, not having heard him come in. He looked exhausted even though he'd slept through the night. His wounds must really be taking a toll on him.

"You called me an idiot yesterday."

"You were. You should have found me, we would have had a better chance together."

"I don't like where this is going."

"They are at their peak, the King isn't going to waste them in Hueco Mundo any longer, and once they get to Soul Society they'll be out of our reach."

"I know."

"So you know what I'm going to say."

"If I didn't stand a chance on my own, why do you think you will?"

"Because they don't know I have this." He put his hand on the hilt of Pantera.

"You can't even use Resurrection!"

"I destroyed the Midnight, Ichigo. I didn't need Resurrection."

"Like you said, Midnight was nothing compared to the Dawn. You need backup."

"My backup is on his bed with a broken leg and Missy downstairs can't heal you. I'll find the others when I cross back, I won't go it alone unless I have to."

"You aren't supposed to go back for two more days, you'll screw up the rotation. What if someone comes for Orihime again?"

Dammit. Ichigo had him there. But they had to make a choice, risk Orihime or risk all of Soul Society. Grimmjow didn't know if the teen realized which he was choosing.

"I'll get Nel to spit on your leg, you'll be fine here without me."

"So you're going to leave us, leave Nel, and probably get yourself killed."

"Then why did Urahara leave?"

"He had to."

"Why?"

Halibel didn't check in last rotation. She's two days overdue."

"What? And just when were you going to tell me?" He rose, knocking over the Ichigo's desk chair.

"When I knew you wouldn't go running off and leave Nel and Orhime unprotected here."

"You son of a bitch, you should have told me."

"You're going to go, aren't you?"

"Has Urahara sent word back?" Ichigo shook his head no. "Dammit! So he could be gone too!"

"It's possible."

"Is anybody else unaccounted for?"

"No. Renji and Chad are supposed to be back tomorrow, my dad a two more days."

"Shit." Grimmjow cursed again, seething with anger but not yet dashing out the door to open a Garganta so Ichigo continued.

"There is someone else, though, who is missing."

"What, who?"

"Uryu's father. He's been gone for four weeks as far as we can tell from asking around. But there's no way to tell if he was taken or if he left on his own."

"You think he'd join them?"  
>"I don't know the man very well, I don't like him, but he did help Uryu get his powers back once. Maybe he crossed over to try to save him."<p>

"Then why not come to us?"

"I don't know. But it means the Vandenreich probably have both of them now."

"What's so special about them?"

"Their style, or something. One of the soldiers I fought talked about the way Uryu fought being archaic and all but forgotten. They must know something or have some power the Vandenreich need."

"And now they might have Halibel again. And Urahara."

"We don't know that for sure."

"We have to know what's going on. I'll be quick, just try to reach them-"  
>"Grimmjow, if you leave, you leave it on Rukia alone to protect us right now. Do you really think she could have dropped the Commander of Midnight like you just did yesterday?" Ichigo didn't mean to diminish Rukia's contribution in this war, or make her sound helpless, but Grimmjow was not only an espada- more than equivalent to captain level- his renewed powers had something about them, something the dark shadows of raiti-eating energy of the Vandenreich couldn't touch. His power to protect them was greater than Rukia's, and with Urahara gone and Ichigo injured, that responsibility fell to him.<p>

"She'll have to." He said darkly, jumping on the bed and ignoring the shot of pain the movement caused Ichigo. He pulled open the window and prepared to jump out.

"You're pissed that I didn't tell you about Halibel, that's why you're really doing this."

"I'm not that pathetic, Ichigo." And he jumped from the window. Ichigo pulled himself up enough to look after him and saw him standing in the street. He knew the other was still thinking about it, that he was angry at Ichigo and was not one hundred percent in his decision. He watched fists shove into pockets and shoulder hunch tensely.

"Shit." He heard the curse roll out in the quiet evening as Grimmjow turned back to the house, never looking up at Ichigo's window. A second later he heard the bang of the door to the kitchen and sighed in relief. He hated being helpless, but he wouldn't be able to do anything if they were attacked right now.

* * *

><p>"Shouldn't we at least wait until Renji and Chad are back before we start making plans?"<p>

"No, Rukia, Grimmjow's right, what if they don't come back either, we need to have a strategy."

"And that's to attack the Dawn Squadron?" She crossed her arms, Ichigo was propped on the couch, she and the rest made a semi circle around it on the floor, their maps of Hueco Mundo spread out between them.

"We have to." Ichigo insisted. We gather everyone and we attack together instead of the way it's been, going in rotations, working in small groups or on our own."

"But we do that, for a reason, Ichigo. Anything could happen while we're not in Hueco Mundo to hear about it. Think of all we've learned and what we could have missed if even for a single hour we hadn't maintained a presence there."

"I'm starting to think it's all a waste." Ichigo shot back. "Maybe we should have been attacking as one from the start, maybe we would have stopped the Twilight before the caught Uryu."

"You're thinking with your emotions Ichigo. You're not trained in military strategy."

"Grimmjow is and he agrees."

Grimmjow finally spoke for himself. "I think the Dawn will depart soon and we'll lose our chance."

"Grimmjow thinks they will go to Soul Society?" Nel piped up from where she sat.

"Yeah, he does." He absently put his hand on her shoulders.

"But Nel thought Soul Society was closed off."

"It is, Nel. But the Vandenreich can get there through their world."

"Oh." She pondered this for a bit. "And Grimmjow doesn't know how to get to the Vandenreich world?"

"No, we don't. If we could, we might actually be able to stop all of this." He turned back to Rukia. "So, long and the short of it, we need to make a move and I don't want to wait. I don't care if I have to carry Ichigo in there, if you guys are worried you'll get attacked I'll just take you with me when I go but I don't want to wait on this any longer."

"Nel is confused," Nel interrupted again.

"It's okay." Orhime said, "we'll explain when everything is sorted out."

"But everything is sorted out, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Grimmjow said he wants to go the Vandenreich world but doesn't know how."

"Yes."

"And then Grimmjow said he knows the Dawn are going to the Vandenreich world soon."

Grimmjow's eyes widened and he looked to the child as the realization finally struck him and all of them. She stared back at him flatly as if she was the adult explaining this to a small child. "So then why doesn't Grimmjow just follow the Dawn to the Vandenreich world?"

"I can't believe it." Rukia breathed. "How did we not see it?"

"Because soul reapers are stupid." Nel boasted.

"Good work, kid." Grimmjow smiled from ear to ear and put a hand atop her head, "What did I ever do without you?"

"Nel wonders that too."

"Okay kids," he looked back to the others not losing a millimetre of that smile, "who's ready for a field trip?"

* * *

><p>"It's settled then." They were back at the shop, Ichigo propped up on crutches and still drying out from all the spit Nel had drenched his leg in. For a normal human, the break would have taken weeks to recover, but Ichigo's spirit energy mixed with Nel's concentrated healing on his leg, allowed them to take his cast off so he could bend his knew. The leg was still thickly bound, no where near fully healed, but he could move on his own now, at least, enough to survive. "As soon as we've regrouped with at least Chad and Renji, two of us will infiltrate the Dawn and wait for them to cross over."<br>"But I don't think it should be you." Rukia said to Grimmjow. "You're too recognizable."

"They know all of us by now, it will be a risk regardless."

"I know but their bound to know you right away with your blue hair and if they caught a glimpse of your six-"

"Fine, then who?"

"I think Tessai should go. He has great knowledge of inter-dimensional travel and the laws of the universe. He would have the best chances of understanding what they did to cross over."

"Okay, we'll find him and bring him back." Grimmjow conceded. "But who do you think should be the second." He asked as if he already knew.

"Me."

"Rukia!" Ichigo protested.

"No, Ichigo, it makes sense. For one thing, I do not have any physical traits that stand out quite as much as any of you. I believe I could easily look like a Vandenreich. And secondly, because you know I am not as valuable here. If something happened to me then-"

"Don't." Everyone was surprised it was Grimmjow who interrupted her. "Do not chose to go on a mission because you think you're expendable. That means you already think it's going to fail. You go on a mission because you think you have what it takes to make it succeed and we _need_ this to succeed more than anything."

He was right, there was no denying it. Rukia looked to Ichigo, he nodded. "Okay." She said. "Then I will succeed. I can do this."

"Good."

"Alright." Orihime put her hands together. "Then maybe I should fix us something to eat while we wait for-"

None of them saw it coming. One instant they were standing together in the front room of the shop, the next thing walls were turned to splinters, glass to shattered crystals, and gravity reduced back to mere theory. Their bodies rose up, before falling sideways against one end of the room and crashing to the floor.

"I'm surprised you actually countered me Grimmjow."

Rukia heard the dry voice roll over them all, and pulled her head above the debris around her to see the dreded lieutenant of the Dawn Squadron.

"Lieutenant Yvo." Grimmjow growled the name on his knees, every muscle in his body quivering to keep the blade of pure blue energy from touching him. At the lieutenant's back were six more soldiers- all of them had cut their teeth in the Dawn and were ranking officers of the squadron. Seven officers- they had sent seven officers to the human world.

The war had been brought to Karakura.

* * *

><p><em><strong>A bit of an abrupt ending but otherwise the chapter would have been way to long, so hint hint, big action sequence in the next one! As I edit and post the Dawn Breakers I realize it's a fair bit shorter than Day Break, still lots to come but just warning you. I will have to start writing Part III soon though, lol. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and thanks for the reviews!<strong>_

_**Riza.**_


	16. Dawn Breakers Chap 3

"You cannot win this battle, Grimmjow, even with your blade renewed. It's been a while since you clashed with any of our squadron, you don't know how strong we've become."

"What, by taming adhucahs? By consuming souls? You realize that you're acting more like hollows than Quincies." With enormous effort, Grimmjow stood up, no sound coming from the friction between their blades but the weight of it heavy against Pantera.

"We consume raiti."

"Oh no, I've seen you people, I've seen you eating hollows to gain their power in more raw, pure form. Don't pretend you're any better than the creatures you eat, _lieutenant _Yvo. What exactly did you do to gain your rank? Eat more hollows than the others? You digust me. And don't for a second, think I'm letting you bring this war here."

"Oh Grimmjow, you don't have much choice. But don't worry, we're not here to start war with the humans, this is our own world after all, we just want _her."_ Yvo, who sported dark rimmed glasses, looked over them at the mess of plaster and shattered furniture where Orihime lay shaking, blood oozing from her mouth and one hand on Ichigo's arm. The teen soul reaper was in no better shape, coughing and trying to push himself up next to her. He smiled and turned back to Grimmjow.

"Though the King would also love to kill you in person, Grimmjow, and he was very curious to study those two soul reapers and the arrancar-child. So I guess I'll just take the whole lot of them back with me. But you, Grimmjow, you I think I will have to regretfully inform the King did not survive this encounter."

"Ha." Grimmjow finally pushed back and they broke apart, "this should be fun."

He should have seen their attack coming. It was the same move the Vandenreich had used on Halibel back then: the six surrounded him and in an instant blue bands of light wrapped around him, one from each soldier.

When it had happened before, they hadn't understood exactly what the Quincies were doing, just like they had not understood the dark shadow that always cloaked the King. But Quincies absorbed raiti. These blue bands were trying to suck every last molecule of spiritual energy from him just like that black cloak had become an actually physical manifestation of the King's spiritual pressure from all the raiti he'd consumed.

The blue light was wrapped around his neck with strangling force. Currents of electric power ripped out from it, sending shocks of pain through his body and making it impossible to breath. But they got no power from him; his spiritual energy had transformed, and this tactic would not work on one like him. With one swing, Pantera cut through the six bands, the soldiers stumbled back and Grimmjow fell choking to the floor, gasping in air.

Yvo's mouth tightened and he eyed Pantera. "So, he's going to cause trouble after all."

Grimmjow just barely got back to his feet in time to meet Yvo's strike. He hammered down furiously, strike after strike, all that Grimmjow could easily meet but the force that hit back reverberated through Pantera, shaking his very soul. The strikes were relentless and it started to become clear that Yvo was in fact not trying to hit Grimmjow, he wanted to hit Pantera.

"You're afraid, aren't you?" Yvo cackled over the oddly silent strikes: his blue beam of energy that he wielded as a sword did not make a sound as it met Pantera each time and all could hear Grimmjow's rapid breaths, his grunts of effort while Yvo remained as calm and composed as ever.

"Afraid of what?"

"You're afraid of something happening to Pantera again. You may have changed, Grimmjow, gained a power we have yet to decipher, but your fear will hold you back and let us crush you."

"Screw you!" Grimmjow swung, the blow was parried and he was pushed back. The next blow that came down drove Pantera back into him and he had to catch the flat of the blade and support it with both hands to protect himself from the ensuing rain of blows. They came in such fury and rapid succession he could not move, and with every strike he seemed to wince, to flinch, as if they were in fact hitting him and not his sword.

Rukia was struggling out from under a collapsed beam that trapped her leg, but she kept her eyes on the battle the whole time. The other officerrs could take them at any moment, but they too, seemed to want to see what would happen.

And Grimmjow proved Yvo right.

She watched the sweat blossom from his temples, the utter pain filling his face as strike after strike bounced off his sword, and then she saw that he was in fact feeling the pain of his soul. It happened so fast, but her dark eyes caught it all. And the most important detail was not that Grimmjow willingly pulled Pantera away from the next strike, knowingly allowed his body to take the blow instead. The most important thing was not that he fell back on the floor, a long half burn, half cut running all down his shoulder, left side and left leg.

No, the most important detail that no one but the soul reaper seemed to see was that before the blue blade ever bit into Grimmjow, a tendril of blood snaked out his nose and his bared canines gleamed red.

Grimmjow had said his connection with his soul was stronger than ever. But that bond, perhaps, was too deep.

The room was silent but for Grimmjow's heaving gasps where he lay, now coughing blood. Yvo smiled with satisfaction down on Grimmjow and stepped forward, pressing a boot down on Pantera.

"You actually let yourself take the hit. You proved my point, Grimmjow. You are so scarred by the pain of losing your soul that you are afraid it will happen again. You actually want to protect you weapon more than your own body. How pathetic."

"Get your foot off my sword." Grimmjow was hardly threatening as he breathed out thickly, barely moving on the shop floor.

"What are you going to do about it?"

Somehow, Grimmjow still smiled, the red stain on his teeth making it all the more feral. "You came here to take Nel. To take Ichigo and Orihime and Rukia. You came here to hurt the last people in the whole universe I give a damn about." He let go of Pantera, his hands flying behind his head and shoving hard against the ground. He kipped up, and, never stopping, used his momentum and head butted Yvo hard, smashing those glasses and sending blood erupting down the other's face. With a quick flick, Grimmjow caught a toe under Pantera and flipped his sword up into his hand. "And you want to know what I'm going to fucking do about it?"

He swung with his sword, but the move was a distraction while red energy built in his right hand. Yvo didn't realize this until he had defected and found that burning ball of energy right against his chest. "Well I'll tell you what I'm going to do," Grimmjow growled low, "I'm going to break the Dawn."

The room turned red, even those not int he direct path of the blast were thrown back. The remains of the ceiling crashing in around them. Rukia got her leg clear and threw herself toward the others, calling on her shikai just in time to let her ice shimmer up and around them, protecting them from any falling debris. Failing sunlight washed on them and cool air rushed into the room as the destruction ended.

"Just grab her and go!" Someone yelled.

Rukia got to her feet just in time to meet the spear that broke through her ice. Her defence was unexpected and she shoved the spear to one side while rolling along its shaft to spin back and drive her zanpakto through the enemy's stomach. Hot blood ran down her arm, she felt his body give and drew back her blade to let him fall to the ground.

In his absence she finally saw the true devastation of the shop. The whole front room was gone. Yvo was no where to be seen, Grimmjow was just pulling his blade out of someone else's chest but there were still four officers left and Rukia was pulled off her feet by the next attack.

Two went for her, two for Grimmjow. Her stature had her at a disadvantage when the man grabbed her around her throat and threw her into the wall. He pinned her there, her feet dangling but her blade running deep through his side. He spit blood in her face, she squirmed but the fist closed tighter and his companion, one of the arrancar hybrids, raised a hand at her head, his own cero building, much less powerful than Grimmjow's but at this range, a direct blow to her face would kill.

"Finish her." The other breathed.

She struggled violently, glimpsing Grimmjow fall back with a foot over his throat and knowing she wouldn't get any help there.

"Shit." The heat was already on her, at the last minute the one holding her let go and let her drop and she raised her head to face death like a warrior.

The blast erupted, the wash of heat and power closed the distance on her and yet the burning pain never came. Instead, she felt a small weight on her shoulders and a hand knotted in her hair.

"N-nel?" the small girl stood, mouth wide, taking in the pure energy of the blast like it was a bowl of ice cream. Both Vandernreich stood in shocked confusion as the tiny girl closed her mouth, completely untouched by the blast, her childish grin turning dark as she turned to them and opened her mouth again.

The blast that came out this time was at least twice as powerful as the one the girl had swallowed. Rukia now remembered Ichigo explaining this power in the child. The last remaining wall of the of the front room of the shop collapsed, the two soldiers lay burnt and unmoving in its wake.

"You got them." Rukia breathed out, barely able to speak past the damage to her windpipe.

They heard a mighty roar and turned just in time to see Grimmjow swing a leg up to dislodge the man pinning him. The officer flipped and fell down on him, they rolled over the room until there was a sickening snap and Grimmjow came up heaving. The body of the other soldier still had Pantera sticking from his neck.

This was war. War was messy.

Blue eyes frantically searched over the dirty rubble where Rukia and the others were, but finding them all still there and breathing, he relaxed.

Orihime had Ichigo propped against her, Rukia now took Nel in her arms and no one wanted to acknowledge the horrible destruction around them, the reality of such an open attack in the human world, and that ranking officers from the Dawn had been sent.

"Damn, I did _not_ think we were gonna make it." Grimmjow breathed, finally staggering back up to retrieve Pantera. "I honestly wasn't sure we were going to stop Yvo."  
>"You didn't."<p>

Grimmjow lurched. Blue energy shone out just over his pelvis. He slid back along the blade of energy and against the enemy who was drenched in blood and covered in black burns. "You, Grimmjow Jaggerjaques, will never bring down the Dawn."

Yvo's hand was around Grimmjow's throat, holding him backward against him and he pulled the Quincy sword out of him and then let him drop. His foot came down hard, right over the wound in his lower back and the sword came to point just over the base of his neck to finish it. "You failed."

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

Black energy tore over Grimmjow, the weight on his wound lifted and he heard a thump behind him as the arc of power dissipated. He turned just enough to see half a corpse and knew it was over.

Zangetsu dropped to the floor as Ichigo lost his balance, Orihime reaching to steady him. Nel jumped from Rukia and ran straight for Grimmjow and after taking a moment to check all of the enemies were dead, Rukia also fell at his side.

"Damn." She was still breathing heavily from her own fight but sealed one hand over his back to try and stem the tide of blood. His unsteady breath hitched but he said nothing, his eyes half closed and his hand opening and closing against the floor board.

"Grimmjow don't die!" Nel screeched.

"Nel, can you find something to bind his wound up with?" Rukia asked.

The girl just dashed off. Orihime supported Ichigo and got him to their side.

"Let me try to help." Orihime whispered, holding out her hands.

"No, you're powers aren't recovered." Rukia argued.

"I still have to try." She shut her eyes, concentrating deeply, but sorrow overtook her features and she didn't even have to say it. "I can't..."

"Nel found some things!" The little girl was back at her side and Rukia took what she had gathered and began making a binding for the wound.

"They sent the Dawn." Ichigo was still half shocked, "we aren't safe here. When these six don't go back-"

"I know." Rukia pressed the bandage hard into Grimmjow's back, causing him to groan out in pain but she didn't relent, getting her hand under him and rolling him over, Ichigo helping to ease him onto his back and the soul reaper rapidly moved to staunch the tide of blood by tying off the bandage.

Grimmjow couldn't hide the pain. The long gash from his shoulder to his thigh seemed to have been cauterize by the blade's energy but that in no way gave him relief from the pain on top of the stab wound in his abdomen. "That will hold him for now but he needs kidou healing. I will do what I can but we should meet with Tessai."

"What about Renji and Chad?" Orihime asked. "They should be here by now."

The dark haired soul reaper raised her eyes to the girl. "They're overdo. We can't count on them, or anyone right now. We have to operate on the assumption that we are all that is left of the resistance in the world of the living."

This brought shocked looks to Ichigo and Orihime. Rukia softened her tone but remained serious. "Look, we don't know what's happened, they may be fine, but we cannot wait for them. We have to take control of this situation right now."

"The basement?" Ichigo suggested. "We could seal it off."

"But then we'd be sitting ducks." Rukia countered.

"At least it would be somewhere that won't hurt the outside world." he countered. "Rukia, if they send more, we probably won't make it, but we don't want that battle to spill over into Karakura. We need to contain this."

"Hueco Mundo." Grimmjow growled out from the floor.

"What?"

"We go back over. Stick with...the plan. Follow the Dawn...to their world...keep them out of..this one."

"At least we'd have a chance of finding the others." Orihime said hopefully.

"Or getting slaughtered by the Dawn as soon as we get there." Rukia said.

Ichigo remained silent, his eyes showing he considered this deeply.

"I think we should do it." he concluded. "It's easier to trace Orihime or any of us in a world of souls that don't have spiritual pressure. But there, we'll be just a handful among the thousands of beings who live in that desert. And like Orihime said, then at least we might find out what happened to the others."

Rukia sighed, clearly less confident in the idea. "Fine, I get your point, but what about Tessai?"

Ichigo's eyes fell to Grimmjow. "Like you said, we need to contact him."

"You mean to leave Grimmjow behind?"

"I saw it too, Rukia." her dark eyes narrowed. "His soul."

"Yes. The blows to Pantera hurt him. That should not be possible."

"Hey...I'm still here." Grimmjow barely whispered out.

"Sorry." Ichigo apologized, "But that wasn't good. You can't defend yourself like that. We don't even know what sort of damaged that is doing to you. Besides, you need to be healed."

"I will be. And you too...on the other side."

Ichigo looked to Rukia, she considered. "Well, it just depends on how Orihime's powers work, and nobody really fully understands them. But what I think Grimmjow is suggesting, is that like the rest of us, our powers are greater in a spiritual world. If Orihime's powers operate on the same principle, then she should be able to draw from her surroundings and use her abilities again. But it's no guarantee."

"I think it's our best choice." Orihime said. "I want to go."

Rukia was now the only one still hesitant, but seeing their resolve, she nodded. She took time only to retrieve Kon from Ichigo's house. He would take Ichigo's body and keep it safe as well as take a message to Tessai about what they had chosen to do. They could only hope the two would remain safe and be the last watchful eyes in Karakura. Then, they got Grimmjow up between her and Orihime to open the Garganta.

"Make sure you're sending us somewhere safe." Rukia warned. He was barely functioning as it was and just dragged his hand over the air, the dark cracks forming. Nel kept a tight hold of his leg and as one, they all moved through to the silver night.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Currently working on part III as I edit and post this one and it's going well. Also, very excited for Bleach 501- hoping to see our favourite blue haired espada at the other end of that blade!<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	17. Dawn Breakers Chap 4

It was familiar. Leaves cast in grey shadow of colourless trees. Damp earth and the creeping chill that came with lying on it too long. And tiny fingers clenched tight in his shirt, her steady breathing washed over the damp patch of her drool on his arm.

"Nel?" She didn't wake up, he just let her sleep as his mind fought to piece back together how he had returned to this damn forest. He shifted slightly and felt pain all over his body, spreading cold deep inside and burning along his flesh. Had it all been a dream? Was he really still lying here under the leaves in the Menos forest after being poisoned? Had he only imagined the dread king taking away his soul, rescuing Halibel and meeting up with the soul reapers and humans?  
>"Nel?" He shook her slightly, a bit more desperate now. "Nel, wake up."<p>

She stirred, forgetting the danger and yawned as if they were back in the shop or at the Kurosaki Clinic. "Mmm, Nel wants ice-cream." She murmured.

Ice cream. That was definitely not from Hueco Mundo, so it wasn't all a dream. But then, how were they back here?"

"Grimmjow?" An orange halo of hair leaned over him and awkwardly lowered himself next to him. He seemed to be struggling with one leg and Grimmjow remember the break. If he was still hurt, and Ichigo still limping, then their plan must have failed.

"What's going on?"

"Orihime's powers haven't come back as quickly as we hoped. But she was able to heal us both a bit." He indicated his lack of cast and Grimmjow also noted that he was in his Soul Reaper form. "She concentrated on the stab wound." Ichigo nodded to Grimmjow's torso. Though the fabric was still torn and stained through with blood, he was surprised to see how much it was healed over when he still felt this terrible.

"It's your soul." Ichigo read his thoughts. "You've been unconscious for two days. Rukia and I both saw how the blows to Pantera were hurting you. When Orihime went to heal you, she said it was like you were wounded deep inside, but she didn't know how to fix it."

A frown settled over Grimmjow, he didn't offer his own thoughts but Ichigo prompted. "You returned with him from your last trip to Hueco Mundo. You fought with him then, what did it feel like?"

"Not like this. It felt..good. I was winning. I felt the satisfaction of the kill more than I ever felt it before but I thought it was just because we were reunited."

"But maybe it's because of your new connection to Pantera? What he feels, you feel, and not just sentiment but physical pain. A zanpakuto can't bleed when it's hit, but you can."

"It's all just speculation." Grimmjow sighed and braced a hand on the ground, pushing himself up and letting Nel slide to his lap. Ichigo tried to stop him but he shoved his hand aside and sat. He wasn't going any farther and he knew it, but he just needed to right himself, let the blood flow downward. He sat just letting the pain of moving pass for several moments.

"But something's up. Just like those scars." Ichigo continued.

The scars and injuries Grimmjow had received in those days before Nel returned his soul to him had not healed like every other wound Orihime had treated. For some reason, they could not be erased, and so he bore the permanent reminder of what he'd suffered as well as a slight limp that had never left once his leg had fully healed. "And that's not all. You're spiritual pressure is different, I can't even feel it."

"You can't feel anyone's, moron."

"Okay, bad example, but Urahara and Rukia say it's really difficult to sense even when they know where you are. What's that all about?"

"I don't know!"

"Evolution." The quiet voice startled them both. Rukia still had yellow discolouration around her neck. Grimmjow just now saw where Orihime was asleep nearby and he was startled yet again when he noticed another figure hunched just past her, keeping watch. Isshin. He didn't question that now, however, he wanted to hear what Rukia had to say.

"I've been thinking about it." She went on. "What is Shikai? What is Bankai? When Ichigo reached a certain level, we couldn't feel his spiritual pressure either. It was something entirely different. Aizen didn't even understand it. So maybe, somehow, when you reunited with Pantera, you evolved or transformed in some way. Maybe that's why you can't use your Resurrection anymore. Maybe you've just...surpassed all of that."

"I don't know that I'd call feeling the blows I block a great step in evolution."

Rukia shrugged. "It's just a theory, but I don't think the Grimmjow we knew before all of this could have destroyed the Midnight Squadron on his own like that. And the Quincies can't feed off your energy, that's a definite improvement."

"You're right there." Grimmjow shifted his hand, it was clearly taking everything for him just to stay upright. "But enough about all that. What's happened in two days?"

"Well, my father found us." Ichigo said.

"Great, if he can find us, so can the Dawn, so why haven't they come?"

"Isshin is shielding out spiritual pressure." Rukia supplied. "He has been in touch with Urahara and Halibel. They found a lead they did not want to let slip away."

"What?" He watched Ichigo's face darken. "What it is?"

"They've been watching Uryu."

"But he was taken."

"And now he's back." Ichigo's voice was bitter. "Apparently he has joined the Vandenreich."

Grimmjow's stomach churned. He remembered vividly what it had taken for himself to be so changed. But Uryu was human, his soul was not like Grimmjow's couldn't exist in a form that the King could break like his. So how had they done it?

"What do you mean _joined?"_

"I mean Halibel watched Lothure bow before him as he declared himself Commander of the Dawn with the King's blessing."

"He what?"

"Exactly. He's more powerful than any of them. And he has every intention of leading a full scale assault against Soul Society."

"When?"

"We don't know. But we have to guess that the King will want him to prove himself first." Grimmjow could not mistake the terrible dread building in Ichigo's voice and so he asked his next question almost hesitantly, thinking of the last two unaccounted members of their resistance.

"Prove himself how?"  
>"By killing his former allies. Starting with the two he already has."<p>

"Chad and Renji."

"They will be executed once the King has gotten what information he wants from them."  
>"Halibel and Kisuke, what are they planning?"<p>

"I don't know..." Ichigo's hand tightened around the hilt of Zangetsu.

"And Chad and Renji? Where are they being held?"

"He has them in Las Noches."

"Dammit." It made sense, but the palace had become impenetrable since their last escape. Then another thought hit him and he had Ichigo by the shoulder. "He'll do to Renji what he did to me."

"I know." Brown eyes watched the turmoil at those memories, Ichigo's own chest tightened at the thought. "Grimmjow, do you know of any other way in there?"

"I would have already told you. Where are the Dawn now? Are they at the palace?"

"Yes."

"Then we only have one choice. There's only one person we have to defeat in order to stop this."

"You can't mean-"

"If the next attack on Soul Society hinges on him proving his worth, then it's Uryu we need to stop. You're more powerful than him Ichigo."

"You want me to kill my friend?"

"No." Ichigo instantly regretted saying that when he saw the flash in Grimmjow's eyes and the espada turned his gaze away, one hand sliding protectively over Nel's sleeping form. "That's not what I meant." He still hadn't let go of the guilt of killing Yammy. "Just stop him. Defeat him in battle or snap him out of it, either will make him useless to the King and leave the Dawn without a commander. How powerful could the kid have gotten in five weeks?"

"Powerful enough to scare Halibel and Kisuke enough not to try taking him themselves." Rukia said darkly.

"No way he's more powerful than the lot of us. We combine strength and go for it. If we can't stop him, it's pretty much over anyway, right? So why not throw everything at him?"

The two soul reapers took time to consider it all. The Vandenreich had taken Uryu from them, now Chad and Renji. If they didn't go forward with this plan, those three would definitely be lost to them. Grimmjow had a way of simplifying things, Ichigo couldn't really argue and every second they hesitated, Renji and Chad were suffering more.

"Alright, I agree, but it kind of isn't up to me." Ichigo glanced back at Orihime. "We have to chose carefully what we ask her to heal."

"You first. We don't know for sure what's going on with me." Grimmjow said.

"Okay."

"I agree as well." Rukia nodded. "Should we wake her?"

They all nodded. Rukia approached Isshin and Orihime. The elder Kurosaki had been listening, but he left it to his son to make the decision and he seemed to have no problem with their plan. The only flaw Grimmjow saw was when Isshin rose to join them and he saw the dark stain through one shoulder.

"This fight will not be mine." Isshin wheezed out in response to shocked eyes. "Nor Orihime's. We will meet up with Urahara and Halibel but when the battle begins it will be no place for Orihme or Nel. I will keep them safe."

"Will you go back to the world of the living?" Ichigo asked.

"No son, I don't think any of us should go back while the Dawn hunt us. We can't endanger Karakura like that."

"I agree."

"Alright then." Orihime was now set to try again. "Ichigo."

The healing went better than the last few attempts. Orihime was not really conscious of the source of her power, but she had been trying very hard to draw from the strength around her. Every time she seemed to be getting better at it and now she was able to put Ichigo back together once and for all.

He stood with ease and relief. Sighing out, he watched her turn her glow on Grimmjow. Sweat formed on her brow, but she didn't stop. She wouldn't, not if it meant giving her friends a fighting chance, a hope to save Renji, Chad and Uryu.

"How's that?" She asked, half out of breath when she withdrew from Grimmjow. He was still stiff and sore but he was able to get up and there was no mark to speak of where he'd been stabbed or where the long cut had run down one side of him. Nel, now fully awake, jumped up onto his shoulder with glee to have him back in good health.

"You should still be careful." Orihime stood with a hand from Ichigo. "I could feel the damage inside of you, Grimmjow, unlike anything I've ever felt, it must be from your connection with Pantera. Just be aware of that."

"I will. Thank you, Orihime." She nodded and looked to Isshin.

"You've already strained yourself." He protested. "Worry about me later, when we're settled. Right now, we need to meet up with Urahara and Halibel."

Ichigo took hold of Orihime and then looked to Rukia. She was very adept at identifying spiritual pressures. She closed her eyes and focused deeply for a few moments.

"There, I've got them. Follow me."

They moved in a tight group, Ichigo carried Orihime with him, Nel with Grimmjow as always and, Isshin bringing up the rear. It took a few hours to get from the Menos forest to where Halibel and Urahara were stationed in the rocky outcroppings they'd crossed months earlier when they'd first come to rescue Rukia.

They at once knew something was wrong. Halibel's white coat was laying discarded in the sand, fresh crimson on one side. She was sitting with her back to them against a rock and made no effort to address them when they arrived. Blood oozed out between her fingers where they were held against her shoulder. Kisuke was not far from her, positioned watching the reconstruction of part of a wall Ichigo and Isshin had blasted through last week only to be repelled. But upon their arrival, Urahara hopped down from his post to meet them.

"Halibel!" Grimmjow at once moved toward her but a quick hand caught him. He looked to the shopkeeper.

"She needs space."

"Why? What happened?"

"It seems the Vandenreich have had a presence in Hueco Mundo longer than we thought."

"What does that mean?" Ichigo asked.

"Halibel ran into an old ally she thought was long dead."

That was enough for Grimmjow, he shirked out of Urahara's grasp and went straight to the source. No one followed, and Grimmjow knelt before the third espada just out of ear shot of the others while Kisuke continued to explain to them. All hope faded from Grimmjow when he saw her state. It wasn't the deep cut running through the outside of her bicep, it was that terrible look in her eyes, a pain he knew far too well.

"Nel, go to Ichigo." He instructed and felt her jump form his shoulder, knowing when to actually listen to him. "Halibel..."

He reached out to her but she flinched and he drew his hand back. So many times she'd given him comfort and now he didn't know what to do for her.

"It was Mila Rose." She said, her voice void of anything and her gaze fixed far away. "I barely recognized her after everything they did to her."

"Like me?"  
>But she shook her head. "He must have experimented on her...on all of them maybe. She didn't have the scars like you but...her eyes were just dead, her bone mask was broken. She was disfigured. She had a different weapon. She attacked without a thought, without hesitation. She never stopped. I couldn't...I tried not to hurt her but she just kept attacking."<p>

"It's not your fault."

"I killed her Grimmjow."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry? You're _sorry,_ Grimmjow?" those furious green eyes finally turned to him. "Where's that rage of yous, Grimmjow? Where's your blood lust? That's what I need right now, not you feeling sorry, I need Grimmjow Jaggerjaques, I need you to get angry!"

"Why, Halibel?"

"WHY? Because I want to rip the Vandenreich to shreds! I want you and me to tear a bloody path through the Dawn straight to the gates to their world and up to the King's throne. I want to break him into dust for everything he's done to us!"

"We can't."

He was unprepared for her attack and fell back in the dry dirt, her hands knotting in his collar as she straddled him. He could flip her off of him, but he just lay there for the moment, letting her scream down at him.

"WHY NOT?"

"Because he has Renji and Chad. And now Uryu-"

"Screw the humans!" She screeched, and Grimmjow was aware of the group watching them, definitely hearing the conversation now that it was taking place at much higher decibels. "Let them save themselves! You and I already know what's going to happen. Their going to end up killing Uryu, just like you had to kill Yammy and I had to kill Mila Rose. Do you really want to see that happen again? And for what? Renji and Chad will be dead as soon as they're of no use, the King will win again!"

"Halibel! Calm down!"

His head slammed back in her anger. "Don't you fucking tell me to calm down! I thought you would understand. You of all people." She rolled off of him, as if disgusted, and began to march away. He got back up, rubbing his head and chased after.

"Stay the hell away from me."

"Halibel, I know you're upset but we've been through so much. Why are you acting like this now?"

"Because we've lost Grimmjow. The Vandenreich have been plotting this for longer than we even knew, they've held control of Hueco Mundo for months. The little bit we have left is about to be taken away. These humans will break when they have to turn on their own, when they lose their own. They can't handle that pain and they will be taken, tortured and killed by the Vandenreich. So before that happens, I want to leave. And I want to leave a bloody mark on the enemy or die trying."

"Okay."

This got her to stop. "What?"

"I said okay. Ichigo is going to fight Uryu. While he's doing that, you and I can go for it. We'll hack our way through Dawn's Calvary to the centre of Las Noches and make them take us to the King. But on our way, maybe we can save Renji and Chad. And maybe Ichigo will be able to save Uryu. Maybe we'll find a way to the king. Maybe we can win this after all."

"Since when did the god of destruction become an optimist?"

"Since he came back." Halibel did not react in surprise when he hauled out Pantera. She of course, had noted him the moment she saw Grimmjow.

"Pantera has finally been restored."

"Yes."

"And that is your hope that we can win?"

"No Halibel, it's a promise. Pantera won't rest or let me rest until we've gotten our revenge. Don't think I've gone soft, Third, I still operate on one thing only. But I'm not the god of sacrifice like you— my vengeance includes my _survival,_ and yours and everyone who's stood with us. But trust me, my vengeance will be Pantera through the King's heart."

"Alright." She consented. "Then I agree."

"Good."

He turned back to the rest of the group. No one mentioned Halibel's words against the humans. She had been a loyal and invaluable ally and none of them had seen her have any sort of emotional reaction to date, so it was simply put down to that and they moved on.

The final plans were made. Grimmjow and Halibel would go for Renji and Chad, everyone else, for Uryu. They all took a moment to prepare themselves, Kisuke bound up Halibel's wound and she put her jacket back on. Grimmjow moved over to Ichigo as he readjusted Zangetsu on his hip.

"Hey, are you okay with this? I mean, back there I said I'd go at Uryu with you."

"No, Halibel is right. When we attack Uryu there's a good chance we'll risk Renji and Chad. I'll feel better knowing you're going after them. You _are _going after them right? You're not just saying that so you can go off and get revenge."

"I'm doing both, kid, but yeah, I'll do what I can for them and forget what Halibel said, she will try as hard as anyone to save them."

"Okay good. But what was all that about sacrifice and destruction?"  
>He watched a thoughtful smile pass over Grimmjow and he half laughed at the old memory. "Aizen designated us as the nine aspects of death. I don't know if he just based it on our personalities or if the twisted bastard did somehow find a way to infuse those traits in us when he transformed us with the Hogyoku. But I was Destruction and I think we can both agree it is a good fit. I hadn't actually thought about that for a long time until today. Halibel was Sacrifice, and if you knew her then, you'd understand that. Sacrifice and Destruction. We're all that's left of Aizen's sinners."<p>

"Well feel free to destroy, Grimmjow, but please don't let Halibel sacrifice herself. I've never seen her like this."  
>"Honestly, neither have I. She was so loyal to her Fraccion, I guess I wasn't a very good leader to mine. I was just angry when they were killed, not sad. She however, was bound to them like kin. I don't think I understood any of that until I met Nel. But it doesn't matter now. Halibel is strong, she'll be fine. You just worry about Uryu, and remember, he might be brainwashed, but whatever they did cannot be the same thing they did to me. He's human, his soul is inside of him and can't be broken."<p>

"Okay." For a second, Grimmjow glimpsed the human teen again, before all this war began, and he felt a surge of anger for how much they had all suffered. The Vandenreich would pay for everything they had done.

"Okay, let's do this."

"Nel wants to go too!" The small weight hit him, wrapping around his leg in that death grip.

"No way, it's too dangerous."

"NO! Grimmjow said he would never leave Nel!"

"You'll be with Orihime and Isshin. They'll take care of you."

"NO!" She insisted, wailing into his pant leg.

"Nel! You don't want to see what I have to do."

"Nel doesn't care."

"Okay, then, _I _don't want you to see what I have to do."

"Nel still doesn't care."

He gave a frustrated sigh and just felt her fingers tighten. Halibel came next to them, back to her calm coolness as usual. "She stayed with you all those weeks they had us on the run in Las Noches. And you did make use of her healing powers."

"We didn't have a choice then. Besides, you know there's no chance of her growing up anymore, so don't count on that."

"I know, Grimmjow, but she was an espada. And this very well may be the last act of the espada. So perhaps she should come."

Her grimness subdued him. He looked to the tiny figure on his leg and then to Isshin and Orihime. "I guess I'm taking this one with me," he informed the elder Kurosaki.

"Then I wish you good luck." He gave a half salute, Grimmjow nodded to the rest of the group, meeting Ichigo's gaze last. The chances that they would both survive were pretty slim. He probably wouldn't see the teen soul reaper again.

Then, without a word, the espada left. Ichigo put his hand on his dad's shoulder and gave Orihime a hug. "Stay safe."

"We will." She promised.

"Whatever happens son," Isshin said, "Don't give in to the choices the enemy makes for us. You save your friend."

"I will dad. We'll see you soon."

He stepped back with Rukia and Kisuke. Another three left. They were back to where they started, the soul reapers and espada had gone their separate ways and there was no knowing if they would ever all come back together again. Isshin put his hand over Orihime's shaking shoulders.

"Don't worry, they are all strong. We have made it this far, it will not end here."

But even as he spoke the words, the dry earth behind them crunched under the weight of a new-commer. His familiar reiatsu washed over Isshin and he never lifted his hand from the girl's shoulder.

"Mr. Isshida!" She exclaimed. He looked fine, despite the fact he'd been missing for weeks, his suit clean and crisp, not a hair out of place on his head. She tried to run forward to him, but a strong hand kept her back.

"Ryuken." Isshin pulled his zanpakuto from it's sheath. "So they have corrupted you too?"

Orihime gave him a startled look. They hadn't known for certain if Ryuken had been captured or if he had come in search of his son. But the cold smile that crossed pale features left no doubt. He raised one arm, a silver pentacle dropping out from his sleeve to dangle on his wrist.

"War, Isshin, is all in the details." Just like Uryu, a long silver bow spouted from the charm on his wrist and he drew back his other hand to aim a blazing blue arrow at them. "And I am one detail, you should not have forgotten, old friend."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Well, still waiting to see who's on the other end of that blade, ack, Kubo and the cliff hangers, but then, I guess I am guilty of that too ;) Thanks for the reviews!<strong>_

_**Riza.**_


	18. Dawn Breakers Chap 5

"That, could be a problem." Kisuke looked out on the sea of Dawn's Calvary. He had hoped most were moved to the domed desert where Halibel and Grimmjow planned to attack. But there was still a mass of teaming beasts, their masters straddling their backs, bows, swords, whatever weapons in hand, just waiting for fools like them to take the main gate. But the gate that loomed behind the horde was not their goal. No, their target was the slim figure in all white standing on marble steps and staring down at his command.

"If we engage him, do you think the other soldiers will attack us?" Ichigo asked, they were crouched behind a dune, drawing back all traces of their power.

"If all of us do, then yes." Kisuke answered. "I think it would be best for you to engage him, and Rukia and I will do what we can to hold off the Dawn. If we are lucky, they will let it play out."

"Wait, I thought the whole point was for us to attack together." Rukia protested. "We don't know what kind of power Uryu has."

"I do. I watched him tear Lothure a new one before demoting him."

"Then why do you want Ichigo to face him alone?"

"Because I believe Ichigo can do this. I would like to use an old strategy, one we used on Aizen."

"I get it." Ichigo said. "You want time. Time to build up a kido binding."

"Precisely. And if the Dawn act accordingly, they will watch the fight and not engage us. They will give me the time I need, and you will give the opening."

"When?"

"When I send Rukia to join you."

"Okay then." Ichigo agreed.

"Fine." Rukia was slightly less convinced. "Let's do this."

Ichigo stood up and moved from their cover. Within moments, their position was revealed, but as suspected, the challenge was understood, and the dozens of cavalry remained where they were while the three approached.

"I expected to see you sooner." Uryu had moments ago been far back behind his command, but now he strolled from mere metres away toward them. "I guess I put too much stock in your ability."

"Uryu I'm sorry it's come to this." Ichigo unsheathed Zangetsu, "I don't want to fight you. I should have protected you in the beginning."

Uryu didn't slow down at the sight of the sword. His white outfit was now very much like the rest of the Vandenriech garb, close fitting to his slender form, a short cape hanging over his shoulders. "Ichigo," that irritated sigh came from him and Ichigo hesitated when the hand fell over his shoulder. Had he missed something? Was Uryu really on their side after all?

"I really wish Yvo had killed you like I'd asked." Ichigo's eyes went wide and he barely countered the attack. He stumbled back several feet and when he looked up he saw the only reason he wasn't already hit was because Rukia and Urahara had closed ranks to protect him. So much for staying out of it.

"You can be so tiresome sometimes."

He kneed Rukia in the gut but Urhara caught his hand. Dark eyes narrowed behind spectacles but Uryu just smiled.

"Perhaps you could be useful." A quick nod and the forces behind him tensed. "Take him to the king."

Urahara had no choice but to let go of Uryu in order to counter the Calvary's attack. Their whole plan was quickly going down hill, but Ichigo felt his whole being go cold when Uryu turned his attention back to Rukia.

"And you." His hand shot to her neck. Ichigo raced forward. But in that instant it took him to get there, Uryu had already finished and dropped her back to the dry dirt, her robes washed pure white and her form unmoving.

"You took here power!" He had never seen any of the Vandenreich use their raiti consuming powers so quickly.

"Yes I did." That cold gaze lifted from Rukia's inert form. "And now I will take your life."

* * *

><p>"No way." Grimmjow breathed staring out at the host of Dawn's Calvary spread out in the interior of the palace. To some extent their plan had worked. Uryu surely felt them breaking in, but his attention was drawn to Ichigo and so they met no resistance they could not defeat between the two of them. But now, Grimmjow and Halibel could both see why Uryu had no reason to fear them getting inside. Spanning out all over the domed desert were mounted Adhuchas- hybrids and Quincies riding them about in their different divisions. It was a legion. And by the way they were getting organized, the orders being shouted, it was clear they were getting ready to move out.<p>

"This is it. The final assault." he breathed.

"It seems safe to make that assumption." Halibel nodded and crouched lower in the shadow of the broken pillar in which they currently hid. "We cannot defeat them."  
>"You just said-"<p>

"We have to make a choice Grimmjow."

He looked at her hard. What choice could she mean? "You mean the humans. Halibel, we haven't even tried to find Renji and Chad yet."

"No, not them, we have to decide what we are willing to lose to do this."

"You have a plan?"

She nodded. "One that seems only suiting for the two of us."

His narrowed his eyes, "we discussed this."  
>"Think about it, sixth. They draw their power from the raiti in Hueco Mundo, well what better source than Las Noches?" Blue eyes widened in understanding. "So Grimmjow, is it worth the sacrifice? Will you help me destroy the last place we called home?"<p>

"Bring down Las Noches so we can bring down the Vandenreich." He scanned the horizon, felt those long days the four of them had spent here burning energy for the hell of it. The last place they felt at home. But beyond this desert were white halls and high chairs and treacherous chambers, forgotten traps and lost secrets. Yes, he would destroy this to bring the ruin of those who had corrupted Yammy, Mila Rose and thousands of beings in Hueco Mundo.

"Yes."

"Good. Then you look for the humans and I will find what I am sure Aizen left behind."

"A self destruct?"  
>"Something like that but unfortunately not so simple. I will need to get into the control room and access all of the explosive potential in this place at once. So, try to keep them busy, alright?"<p>

"Sure thing. Watch your back."

She nodded and was gone.

"You ready to do this, Nel?"  
>"Uh huh."<br>"Alright, then I am pretty sure I know where they'll be keeping the prisoners. Let's go."

* * *

><p>Ichigo fell back in the sand. He gave a nervous glance back at Rukia's still form. He wasn't sure she was even still breathing. Equally disturbing, the commotion between Urahara and soldiers of Dawn had died down and he was afraid he knew what that meant.<p>

"You're distracted." Another hot intrusion into his muscles. He quickly closed his hand over the slim blue arrow in his thigh and dissipated the power but the damage was already done—Uryu's powers had increased incredibly. He couldn't help comparing how much he himself had transformed in three days training for his Bankai to Uryu's transformation now.

Except Uryu had been gone for five weeks.

The next explosion of pain was less easily ignored. Uryu had used his moment of vulnerability to race forward again and now using one of those silver tubes he always carried, he produced a thick, burning burst of concentrated energy just inches from Ichigo's stomach. The energy-blade burned deep into his abdomen, wreaking unimaginable damage on his organs as it half cut, half burned a hole through him.

"GHA!" All he could do was throw himself backwards to disengage his former friend and lay in total shock in silver sand, trying not to picture his raw, burnt intestines, or stomach, trying not feel the slew of blood drenching him.

His chest clenched in a rising anxiety he was not accustomed to feeling. He was going to lose this fight. He was going to fail everyone, the espada, his captured friends, Rukia, Urahara. He would leave his father to defend Orihime. He would fail to save Uryu. He would do nothing to save Soul Society. All because of one distracted moment in battle, because he was still just a kid and didn't know how to carry out war, how to stay focused in every single second. He was seventeen years old and he was going to bleed out in the sands of another universe while his brainwashed friends stood over him with his blood on his hands.

"Giving up already, Ichigo?" Even twisted as he was, the young quincy could understand Ichigo's thoughts. "No, you aren't giving up." He squatted next to him and read his strained features. "You're still trying to find the will to get up again. But you know, deep down, like you've never known it before. You know you've lost."

"Shut up." He lurched upward, sitting to face his class mate eye-to-eye. He coughed on sharp tang of blood in his throat. "How did they do it, Uryu? How did they break you?"

"Break me, Ichigo? They liberated me."

The same words Grimmjow had spoken. Ichigo shut his eyes. "No, Uryu, they didn't. _I_ am going to liberate you. _I_ am going to save you." With enormous effort he put his hands on his thighs and pushed himself up.

Uryu stood with him, holding that determined gaze, seeing the doubt wavering to that phenomenal arrogance, justified by all the victories of his past.

"Is that a promise?"

"It is."

"And you think by saying it like that, speaking it aloud, those words somehow will give you the power to keep that promise?"

"I don't know Uryu. But I said it, so I will do it. You should know that."

"Yes, Ichigo, I know at least, that you believe that."

"Well, maybe you should start believing too." Ichigo pulled his hand away from where it was clenched over his wound and placed it instead on the hilt of his sword, "Bankai!"

* * *

><p>"Is Grimmjow okay?" Nel squatted next to her protector while he knelt on all fours just gasping in air. He had dutifully filled his promise to draw attention away from what Halibel was preparing for their enemies, but it had cost him. His black and white attire was dashed with crimson and white cotton soaked clear with perspiration, but it was the globs of blood he spat into the dry orange dust of the desert plains of Las Noches that were the real concern.<p>

Pantera shivered in his grasp, his face pale as he tried to calm his breathing and the beating of his heart after the last encounter. The whole place was full of those bastards, but they still had trouble locking on to his spiritual pressure and as long as Nel stayed close they could hide for as long as they were out of sight.

He had no idea he was kneeling in what was left of Halibel's old place, it was ruined beyond repair or recognition. Nothing in the landscape was familiar from those endless days, so he was never aware that as he leaned back against broken marble, he had once sat in that same spot, drinking tea and listening to Halibel tell him he could not abandon the arrancar child.

"I'm fine." he breathed, even as he shut his eyes and let his head fall back against the ruined pillar. They were fairly deep in the rubble so as to not be seen, but that false light still lit the space enough for Nel to see the lie. Though he couldn't see her at the moment, in the long pause that would usually be filled by her voice, he could feel her glare.

His tired sigh escaped him and he rolled his head to one side to meet her eyes. "Okay, I just need a minute." he amended.

"Pantera is still hurt, isn't he?"

"I dunno, Nel." He wiped a hand through his damp hair and stood up as far as he could in the collapsed in building. "But we haven't finished our mission so let's not waste anymore time."

"Is Grimmjow going to save the mean Soul Reaper and the Big guy?"

"Yup. Figure they're in the cells where we were or the lab, so you ready?"

She moved next to him and he felt the fabric of his jeans go taught where she held tight.

"Okay, stay close to me, Nel. And don't..." he looked down at her knowing she'd already witnessed so much, but the pair they sought out could be in any condition when they got there and he didn't want her to see their tortured bodies. "Just if I tell you to close your eyes, do it, okay?"

She knew. She may be a child, stubborn and never listened, but she knew what he meant and just nodded.

Grimmjow had managed to create a fair bit of chaos in the part of Dawn's Calvary that were organized in the domed desert. They were still far larger and more powerful than him, but through a succession of quick attacks, he had managed to disrupt their perfect order. And with so many of them being the arrancar hybrids, they were not so quick to fall back in line as the pure quincies would be. By not allowing himself to be drawn into any lengthy battles, he had managed to spread his destruction with little damage to himself and now not only was the distraction paying off for Halibel, but for himself as he made it out of the desert and back into the side hallways of Las Noches unseen.

"I hope Halibel is almost done." He breathed, pushing through doors and making his way as quickly and stealthily as possible to Szayel's lab. "I don't want to get caught up in a fight in this place, we may never get out again."

He met little resistance on his path. He was quite adept at finishing off the lower level Vandenreich with hardly a sound, especially with Pantera back in his hands. But when he finally got to the cells he found them empty.

"They aren't here." He said, searching out with his spiritual pressure as well as with his eyes. "Then they must be in the lab." But he paused on his way from the cells and stood before one door in particular.

"Nel doesn't want to go in that room." He didn't respond. The broken table, those high backed chairs. He didn't want to go in there either. If he had any doubts about destroying this place, they were erased with the comfort of knowing that that room would be turned to dust with everything else.

"Let's go." He couldn't feel them in there either, so there was no reason to enter. Instead, he took them back to the labs. But once again, disappointment met them.

"Where else would they keep them?" Grimmjow muttered, looking from room to room even though there was no trace of their spiritual pressures.

"Grimmjow doesn't think they are already dead?"

"I don't know Nel. But if they aren't here, then where are they?"

But it wasn't a child's voice that answered him. "In our home world, of course."

Grimmjow rolled to the side just before the hammer smashed into him. It landed in the wall, knocking stone and plaster free to fall down all around them. Grimmjow came up quickly, sword held defensively above him and he couldn't stop the groan that caught in his throat.

"Lothure." Damn. He had precisely not wanted to get into a fight like this. Lothure called himself a Stein Ritter, whatever that meant. All Grimmjow knew, was that the very top brass bad ass, of the Vandenreich called themselves that and there were only a handful of them. The four Commanders of the Dawn, the Dusk the Midnight and the Twilight among them.

He had defeated Dachs easily enough, but that had been a fluke, the Commander had been wounded, emotional, and hadn't know that Grimmjow had reunited with his zanpakuto. Yvo had been another, and that encounter had nearly killed him. It had taken Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou to finish him. So here, alone with Nel, in the centre of enemy territory when he was waiting for Halibel to blow the whole damn place to Kingdom Come, he did not want to get in a standoff with probably the strongest of all the Commanders.

"Thought you could come back here, Grimmjow, cause trouble and not face any consequences?" Lothure asked, reading the look on his face while he dislodged the oversized hammer that was his weapon.

"Well, it would have been ideal." Grimmjow swallowed back any fears and let his arrogance reclaim him. "But what's another dead Vandenreich to me, huh? Nel." She obediently let go and moved to the other end of the lab, perching in an opening higher up where she could watch for any dangers coming her way.

"You brought the arrancar child with you even here? How strange. What exactly are you planning, Grimmjow? What brings you back here after all this time?"

"Well, this was our home, I figured it's time to take back what's mine."

"Ah yes, you got your sword back so now you think you're indestructible. But I heard a rumour that I am very eager to put to the test."

Grimmjow braced himself and felt the soul shattering strike reverberate through the steel of his blade and back into his very soul. Yvo had figured it out, so why shouldn't the rest of them know? He was floored in a matter of seconds, but the bastard had already gotten three heavy hits against Pantera.

Lothure stood over him in satisfaction.

"Well that was quick."

Grimmjow was half stunned, the shock to his whole being was slow to pass but there was no way in Hell he was going to let it end like this. When Lothure raised his hammer again, he rolled in a backwards somersault and vaulted to his feet. When the hammer came down right before him, he didn't waste a second in striking down at Lothure's exposed neck.

Now it was his enemy's turn to dodge. Grimmjow was thoroughly disappointed to not have cut clean through his neck and decapitate him, but the burly quincy had not moved quite fast enough and a line of blood ran down one side of his neck. He put a hand to it and felt just how much slid over his pale flesh.

"Well, now I am surprised."

"Shouldn't be. I did say I would break the Dawn after all, so starting with you seems to be a good choice."

"Break the Dawn, eh? Like you tore apart Midnight? You think because you massacred one measly squadron hardly out of its infancy you can single-handedly destroy hundreds of soldiers who've been in this fight since day one. We're the _Dawn_ for a reason- the beginning the first light of the Vandenreich. We are its core, its, foundation, and in a few hours, we're going to finish things in Soul Society once and for all."

"Why did you wait so long then? Oh that's right, your King thought he and a few Stein Ritter could do it themselves, well look how that turned out. They failed, and you won't even make it to Soul Society. Besides, you were demoted, weren't you? Some kid took your place. How's that feel?"

"I respect the orders of my Lord. Unlike you and that witch. You abandoned your ruler, and you fell apart."

"Aizen was no king, no lord, and neither is that black caped son of a bitch. He's just another asshole on a power trip. He'll come crashing down just like Aizen, just like all of them."

"Oh, and what are you then? You're just an animal who learned to walk on its hind legs and thinks he's better than me, better than the Vandenreich. Well, I think you, Grimmjow, will come crashing down first. In fact, I intend to make that happen right now."

The banter was done, but it had succeeded in getting Grimmjow's blood boiling. He once fought in anger in every single battle, and had since learned to use a little more reason and calm. But right now, he wanted to make Lothure lie on his back and look up at him, know he was nothing more than dirt, that the Dawn would break, the Vandenreich fall. So he let his arrogance and pride drive his actions, make him numb to the pain when that hammer glanced off his blade. He let himself forget that there was a greater plan at stake here, that he had just found out two of their allies had been taken beyond their reach, and instead was prepared to give everything just to win this one fight.

Pantera bit into Lothure's collar. His attacks with that blue lit hammer were fierce, but every time he made a powerful strike, he left himself open for just a moment while his hands were raised above his head. The next cut went across his abdomen, the next over his ribs and the next over one shoulder. Grimmjow jumped back from this last hit just before the hammer came down again.

"Not looking too good there, Lothure." he smiled cockily and as the large man raised his arms again he dodged forward with the intent to end it.

He had been played the fool.

He felt the difference in the wind that rushed in the wake of their movements, felt the tightness of Lothure's muscles as Pantera began its penetration right over his heart, but mostly he felt the radiation of that sneer of triumph and that hammer fell twice as fast, twice as hard as any of those hits.

Lothure had let himself take the blows, drawn Grimmjow into his direct line of fire, made him over confident so he would go for the kill right beneath that descending strike and then he'd used his full power to execute the move far faster than Grimmjow could register.

The best he could do was to move his head out of the way and save himself from a lethal blow, but the flat of the weapon connected dead on with his right shoulder, and it was over. Bone crushed under the power of it, his collar snapped, shoulder blade crunched, and the shoulder itself looked caved in underneath the torrent of blood. It was dislocated, hanging low and limp at his side, Pantera falling to the floor while he stood in the shock of it. His left hand came up to vainly try to hold his ruined shoulder together and the room spotted black. He didn't scream, he was still in shock when he fell to his knees.

"GRIMMJOW!" Nel screeched from her perch, but her voice was distant, there was a thrumming in his ears, in his whole body.

"The mistake of an arrogant child." Lothure sneered down at him, the cuts Grimmjow had lain in him were mere scratched compared to this. One hit. Just one hit from the commander of the Dawn. "It cost you your arm. And now your life."

Grimmjow took a shuddering breath. He realized he was panting, the pain was starting to kick in and his body shutting down, but when Luthore bent and picked up his fallen blade, he knew the pain was just starting.

"Will you die, Grimmjow, when I break your blade apart?" He set Pantera on a table and put his hammer over it.

"How much of its pain do you really feel?" He let the hammer fall with little force but it still landed with significant weight and Grimmjow jerk in response. Lothure smiled. "Good."

He raised it up higher this time before letting it drop. The espada on his knees lurched again, eyes hazed, he was half gone with pain already but each jarring force brought him back.

"Grimmjow!" the hysterical voice sounded next to him when the hammer came down hard enough to make him scream. But when he turned to face her, the next strike was too much and he collapsed to his left side. "Grimmjow!"

She turned back to Lothure only to see him raising his hammer all the way above his head this time.

"Grimmjow has to fight back!" She screamed at her fallen hero as she held onto the sides of his face. He spasmed under her touch and she heard the ringing blow to Pantera.

"Still alive, Grimmjow? Well, I think this one is it, here, goes." The hammer began to rise again.

"Grimmjow has to get up!"

Nothing was real to Grimmjow anymore. The room was painted in over bright colours, his own blood choked his breath and slowed the flow of oxygen to his brain. The tiny hands that dug into the sides of his face were barely there. Even those desperate eyes couldn't make him get up. He saw the hammer fall, and he knew it would be the blow to break it. Nel did too. She let her hands fall from his face and moved away.

"No." it was the only thing he could do: let go of his shoulder and wrap his hand in the back of her cloak. He might not be able to save himself, but he wouldn't let her throw her life away to save him. So he held her there while Lothure raised high his weapon.

The hammer fell.

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><p><em><strong>Terrible news about Kubo. Hoping the situation improves. In the mean time I will work at updating my own stories.<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	19. Dawn Breakers Chap 6

"What the hell?" Lothure removed his hammer from the silver-white surface of the blade, seeing not a scratch in the surface from his many strikes and then looked back to the figure on the floor. Grimmjow had lurched at the last strike, sitting up again, but instead of screaming he just took a deep breath, gasping in the air that moments ago had struggled to reach his lungs.

"Grimmjow?" he had let go of Nel in that moment and his hand was back on his ruined shoulder but he looked to her with clear eyes.

"Did you do something?" he asked.

She shook her head. He looked up to Lothure who now in fury took up his hammer again adn swung it down on the blade. Grimmjow felt nothing.

"Pantera won't break." he said in understanding, and with effort, stood up to face his enemy.

"You were tricking me then?" Luthore asked but Grimmjow shook his head.

"No. Rukia said she thought we had evolved. I think she might have been right, only we weren't quite there yet. Pantera and I...we were both so afraid of being separated again that we were holding on so tight I could feel every blow to him. But he won't break, never again. I know that now. I guess I just needed some idiot with a hammer to try and fail to break him to make me realize that, and Pantera too. So now that we know, we won't cling so hard to one another that I feel his pain. I guess I should thank you, ex-commander of the Dawn."

"No." Lothure swung at him when he moved but Grimmjow dodged and took up his sword, his soul that would never break. He blocked the next strike free of that sensation and only had to worry about the shiver in his muscles. As much as his strength to wield his sword was renewed, the blow to his shoulder was crippling and it would take more than he had left to win this. But surely Halibel would be on her way soon, would feel their fight and help him end it.

He dodged and parried. He kept waiting for Lothure to aim for Nel but the other may have had the slightest bit of honour somewhere down deep because he never touched where she crouched in cover. So the fight remained a gruelling dual in which Grimmjow was very much on the defensive. Lothure was taking advantage of his weakened side, aiming blows to his right so Grimmjow would have to twist and turn to defend himself. He began to wield his hammer with just one hand now.

"You've slowed down." Lothure mocked when he hit Pantera and drove the tip down to the ground with a swing from his right. His left came up and caught Grimmjow around the throat. "But this will slow you down even more."

The strike only came with the power of one hand but it still did its damage. Grimmjow managed to get Pantera between his leg and the hammer but it was an odd angle for his left hand and he couldn't hold back the blow entirely. If the impact hadn't been dispersed over the flat of the blade before it connected with his leg he was sure his knee would have been popped, his leg shattered. As it was though, he felt the strain on the bone and knew his lower leg was fractured at best. A gurgle of pain escaped Grimmjow past the pressure on his throat that was now the only thing keeping him up.

"Let him go."

Finally. Her blonde hair was wild, spiked with water, her whole body soaked, she must have had to use her Resurrection and she wasn't without injury, but her green eyes were ablaze and her sword at the ready.

"Hmm." Lothure said lowly so only Grimmjow could hear and lifted his hammer up. "You may have an indestructible blade Grimmjow, but she doesn't."

He fell in a heap, trying to hold everything together. He made an attempt at putting pressure on his leg but it gave instantly.

"Nel, come over here." He instructed when he knew he couldn't move to her. Halibel's battles could get very messy when her water canon came out so he wanted to keep hold of Nel in case they suddenly found themselves in a flood. Turning back to the battle, he could already see the strain in Halibel as she held off the hammer. Lothure was trying to break her zanpakuto and by the look on her face he wasn't far off.

"Stay behind me." He instructed Nel and raised his good hand toward the pair, letting the cero build. Lothure had his back to him and when Halibel saw the point of light in his palm she rolled to the side. Black light struck the Stern Ritter square in the back. He flew forward into the wall. Halibel stood up and moved to Grimmjow's side.

"That won't be enough." the sixth warned but cried out when Halibel hauled him to his feet without mercy. When he started to fall she took his grip on Pantera and pointed it down so the blade's end hit the ground. It was an unsteady cane, but for now kept him up.

"You need to get out of here, I set the charges, I have the detonator." She pulled back her jacket and revealed a small device hooked into the fabric. "Once I feel you are clear I will set off the explosion and sodino out."

"Halibel, this guy is trying to break your Zanpakuto, I don't know if you can take him by yourself."

"I would rather risk that then try to carry you and the child with me through a collapsing building so go!"

He hesitated but the decision was taken from him when, with a might roar, Lothure emerged from where he had fallen and hurled the hammer at them with all his strength. Grimmjow knocked it back with Pantera but fell in the process and the next thing he heard Halibel gasp as she was slammed into the wall, Lothure's hand around her throat. But it wasn't the pressure on her trachea that was the problem- it was the glow of energy that rose from her body. Lothure was consuming her powers.

Pantera tore straight through his leg. It was enough to get him to let go but he had already taken enough of her strength to patch over his other wounds. She fell to her knees; Lothure swung and kicked Grimmjow in the stomach, shaking Pantera free.

"Bastard." Halibel came back to her feet shaking and raising her sword. It had only taken the Dawn's former commander seconds to steal so much from her. He smiled.

"It's over Bitch." His hammer came down on her sword fast and hard. She staggered back and took a second blow. A long split ran the length of the outer edge of Tiburon and she nearly fell again.

"One more hit and it breaks, honey,"

"Halibel." Grimmjow struggled to get up again, kneeling and trying to use his sword to stand. That horrible hammer was coming down on her and he saw her hesitation to defend herself. But then resolve passed over her and she met his strike face on.

Tiburon broke in two, the the last quarter of it's length snapped at an angle and flew somewhere behind them but Grimmjow didn't see where it landed because his eyes were fixed on her.

Because of the design of her blade- two edges joined at the tip with a hollow space between them- when it broke, the hilt was left with two jagged tips. And when the hammer hit, it drove those twin blades back into their master. Lothure continued to bare down on her, forcing the points deeper into her abdomen just below the bone on her chest. He leaned in close to hear the stain of her breath as she kept back the scream.

"HALIBEL!" Grimmjow got to his feet but he saw those green eyes meet his and he felt cold understanding spread through him.

"Grimmjow..." she let go of her blade and a hand reached to her jacket, bloody fingers closing over the trigger to their destruction. "Run."

She knew he had no choice. If it was just him, he would have stayed, would have fought through falling rubble, past the hulk of a man who was stabbing the life out of her, but he couldn't, because next to him was his whole reason for fighting, for living or dying. He could not let Nel go down with them. He had to run. He had to leave Halibel behind as their former home crashed down around them.

Because this was war. And war meant sacrifice and destruction.

* * *

><p>"Dammit, Uryu, don't make me do this." The battle had been long, emotional, but Ichigo had come out on top. His spiritual pressure and Bankai had held him together despite the terrible wound in his stomach, once the power faded he wasn't sure how he would fare but at the moment he was standing and Uryu was not. Still, the brainwashed teen was struggling back to his feel, unable to hide the pain in his features from the cuts across his calves that were meant to immobilize him. One arm was hugged under weakened ribs, his wrist limp and swollen. But those maddened eyes wouldn't let up.<p>

"Please stop, Uryu." Ichigo held out his sword in warning. Uryu may have been terrifyingly strong, but he did not have that same buffer from pain and mortality that Ichigo did in spiritual form. This was his one and only form and body, and it had taken a terrible toll.

"Never." he hissed. "I will stop you, no matter the cost."

Ichigo saw his meaning. He would kill himself to stop Ichigo, and by the look of the blue glow forming in his hand, he knew that was exactly his plan.

"Uryu, stop this. You'll snap out of this, I know it."

"Don't be so naive," Uryu mocked, "there is nothing to stop my father and I now."

"You're father?" Ichigo paused. "He's here?"

"Oh, so you didn't feel him just then?" A dark smile spread over his sweat soaked face. "When he took Orihime and your father back to the Vandenreich home world?"

"He what?" But no answer came as all hell broke lose on crimson soaked sands. Ichigo wasn't sure if Uryu was just as surprised or if he used the massive explosion distracting Ichigo as an advantage but he released whatever power had been building in his hand and Ichigo was forced to turn from the imploding palace, ignore the cracking thunder of churning stone and snapping rock, the fall of tons upon tons of prideful buildings and hallways, chambers and false skies. He had to forget the oncoming storm of dust and sand and face the lethal threat ripping through space toward him. He could stop it. But deflecting the blast back at it's master would come at a terrible cost.

No choice, Rukia still lay behind him, and if his father and Orihime really were taken, he may be the only one left to save them. So, raising his black blade, he uttered the words that he knew would protect himself, but did not know if Uryu could survive.

"Tensa Zangetsu."

Blue met black just before the rolling surf of sand hit their shore and all was lost from sight under that unwavering moon.

* * *

><p>"Ichigo..." A pale and trembling hand came to rest on his shoulder half in comfort and half seeking support as Rukia struggled to crawl through the debris strewn landscape to her last remaining friend and ally. She couldn't see past his shaking shoulder until she hoisted herself higher to look over him and saw what she feared. Uryu lay pale and unmoving in his arms.<p>

"Is he..?"

"I don't know." Two of Ichigo's fingers lay against Uryu's neck, a large gash was visible in the Quincy's shirt.

"Ichigo..." she glanced behind them at the gathering crowd of wild adhuchas and Vandenreich soldiers who had been held at bay by the battle but now moved in on them again. "The Dawn...we need to move."

But between her own lack of strength, Uryu's inert form and Ichigo's injuries she didn't think they had anywhere to run.

"My father and Orihime are gone."

"No..."

"Yes. The palace- Chad and Renji were inside, and as far as we know, Grimmjow, Nel and Halibel were."  
>If he had actually turned to face her, he would have seen the despair verifying his fears, but as it was, he felt her fingers tighten in the damp fabric of his uniform.<p>

"Ichigo, don't let it end here."

Finally he turned and she found brown eyes filled and brimming over. Even though it was her who stood in the white robes symbolizing her loss of power, she reached out and took the side of his face, knowing she had to stay strong, "Stay with me, Ichigo. Renji, Chad, if they died, don't let it be in vain. If they did not, then let us save them. Please, after everything, get up, Ichigo."

"He has no pulse." He finally spoke and she turned to Uryu. The soldiers now had them completely surrounded, she sensed their disorder, hostility. There was little chance they would survive now. She let herself fall against him, let the simple contact of her weight against his arm be a comfort as their end neared.

"It's okay, Ichigo. You fought honourably."

"I killed my friend."

"Ichigo, you cannot blame yourself."

"I failed Orihime, Renji, Chad, my father. Even Urahara is gone."

"You did all that you could."

The hoard was now only a few feet back.

"Rukia...I'm sorry."

"Ichigo, you are the strongest man I ever met."

"Thank you."

Five feet now, they could feel the heat radiating off enraged, wild bodies. They hadn't even bothered to take in the devastation of the palace, ruins quickly falling under silver dust.

Three feet, Rukia couldn't held that she pressed closer to Ichigo and she could feel the pound of his heart.

"I can't do it." He whispered. "Stay close to me Rukia. When they make their move, we run."  
>Their chances were slim but the knowledge that Ichigo would go out fighting encouraged her to at least open her eyes.<p>

But just before what was left of the broken squadron of the Dawn devoured them, a hailstone of fury tumbled from the the sky and skidded to a halt just next to them. When the grey dust settled everyone took in the sweat plastered warrior, one knee raised as if he was ready to launch into the next fight, the other leg clearly not able to take much weight but nothing about his stance suggesting he was giving in to anyone. Even his red soaked shoulder that was starkly deformed, crushed inward to his body and the arm unmoving did nothing to reduce the emission of utter rage that seethed from him body.

"...Grimmjow?"

The espada stood, uneven, but imposing nonetheless, never even glancing sideways at the soul reapers in the sand but looking out at what was left of the Dawn's Calvary.

"You forsaken bastards."

Ichigo noticed Nel drop to the sand at the maddened espada's feet, her eyes a mix of tears and fear.

"Back down." One of the soldiers warned but was only met with the fierce blue of his gaze.

"Adhuchas! Vastal Lorders! HOLLOWS!" the sound of Grimmjow's voice was a deep ripple that seemed to penetrate much deeper than audio stimulus. "Wake the fuck up!"

Grimmjow's hand flew faster than Ichigo could follow, pulling his sword out and flicking it into the sand with force beyond reason that left a ripple of power in its wake. "Remember who you are! We are hollows! We should be free in our world, but instead you've let yourselves be tamed."

Little more than a stirring was achieved by his words, one of the Quincies at the front smiled.

"You were once tamed, Grimmjow. So why shouldn't they be?"

"I woke up."

"There is no point."

Grimmjow eyed the soldier. "I'll snap them back. They just need remember their _hunger._"

The dark eyes of the Quincy narrowed but the next second he was hurled from his perch on the hollow's back and lay on his own back in the sand. Grimmjow knelt over him.

"What are you-"

"Hollows hunger for human souls, or did you forget?"

Nel screeched, Rukia flinched and she felt Ichigo tense next to her when Grimmjow's teeth closed over the twisted human's throat as if he were as beast-like as all the hollows around them. But the effect was what he desired, and at the potent scent of human blood, the act of taking strength from another's life source, consuming a very soul, all those mounted hollows were reminded of that one burning desire that gave them their name, that drove their every action.

They began to rip their masters apart.

And there in the sands beyond the rubble of Las Noches, the last of the Dawn Squadron was laid to ruin.

Grimmjow rose, wiping the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand, but long sticky stains still ran down his chin and chest. There was rage in those eyes that Ichigo recalled from long ago and even as the screams of Quincies, hybrids and hollows continued at his back it was the ruins behind them that held Grimmjow's attention.

He took Pantera back out of the sand but didn't move further after that. He looked like he was about to fall over.

"Ichigo."

"Grimmjow?"

"Is Uryu dead?"

"He has no pulse."

"Where's Orihime?"

"She and my father were taken. Probably Urahara too. Where are Renji and Chad?"

"The Vandenreich home world."

"And Halibel, where is she?"

"In there." Grimmjow dropped his eyes, Ichigo saw the total destruction and understood. She was gone. But then Grimmjow pushed Pantera through his belt and looked Ichigo dead on.

"Get up."

"What?"

"We are leaving. Nel." She moved obediently to his side.

"Where?"

"To the Vandenreich home world." He had turned to face the chaos; here and there they saw retreating soldiers disappearing. They had never seen the Quincies go through to their world, but now seeing swirls of blue light dot the landscape, there was no doubt that these were portals to the quincies' realm, and Grimmjow intended to follow them back.

"It's suicide." Rukia whispered, looking at them all. "Ichigo is wounded, I have no power, and you Grimmjow, I don't know what happened to you but you're going to fall over any second."

"It's your only chance of saving Uryu." He said flatly. "He's dead one way or the other here, but they want him, and they have Orihime, so if you come with us, maybe you can save him. Ichigo," some of the coldness left his voice now and they knew he was thinking of Halibel, "they've taken everything from us. Don't let them take one more person."

It was a struggle, but Ichigo held onto Uryu's thin form and stood up, Rukia following him.

"Okay."

"We'll probably die." Rukia said, slipping her hand around Ichigo's arm as he prepared for flashstep, "but I would rather fight to the end. Let's go."

They moved together over blood drenched ground to the nearest Vandenreich in the process of opening a portal. The soldier had no idea of their intention, and his back to them, he jumped through. The blue portal wavered in his absence, they had no time to hesitate so together they jumped into the void, prepared to meet whatever awaited on the other side. Even if this battle cost them their lives, they would fight to the bitter end for their friends, for each other, for the whole universe.

Because this was war.

END of PART II

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><p><strong><em>Look for a preview for part III soon!<em>**

* * *

><p><strong><em>Hey all,<em>**

**_So here is the end of part II, and I am currently working on part III, but I haven't got a title yet. As I started going through Dawn/Day related names, I thought to myself that some of these sound kind of familiar and then it hit me that the whole Twilight series is named after parts of the day. I never read them but I was kind of sad when I figured that out and now I am having trouble not thinking about vampires every time I try to make a title. Oh well, I'll think of something, and hopefully finish up this story in the process! I will try tp put the preview out in a couple of weeks, and then I'll know better when I'm going to start publishing chapters of the final part. As always, reivews are appreciated. _**

**_Thanks,_**

**_Riza._**

**_PS,_**

**_you totally called it Sheeshasan!_**


	20. PREVIEW for Part III

A slew of powdered stone and broken furniture fell to the ground in a wash of dust, filling in the small space with rubble and blocking out any light that fought its way in. But with a yip, the small hollow who had caused the cave-in jumped from his perch, skidding when his paws slipped on the dark liquid staining the floor. Still, his tail began to wag and his bone head shake up and down as his barking intensified mixed with his furious sniffing as he followed the flow of blood through holes and over more rocks until the trail ended.

YIP! YIP! Its voice reached an ecstatic pitch and it ran around in circles before jumping on the still form.

Green eyes slid open and worked downward, past the terrible wound in her chest, the rubble that trapped one leg and the body of the Vandenreich that lay maimed and crushed at her feet and saw the happy creature.

"Dog."

YIP! YIP! He repeated, working his way to her lap and then pressing two paws on her arm to reach her face and lick out at her cold, clammy skin.

"Yes I know." Halibel whispered and dropped the hand that had been pressed against her wound to pick up the broken sword at her side. "Time to get up."

* * *

><p><strong>Stay tuned for part three of the Day Break Trilogy: "Unbreakable" in which the heroes take the fight to the Vandenreich Home World: the legendary Vale of Eden. The battle finally concludes, but what will be the price of peace?<strong>

**Look for the first chapter soon!**

_**sorry for the long wait between Dawn Breakers and this preview. I am still not done writing part III, but I'm afraid if I keep delaying publishing, it will never get done, so I'll start as soon as possible and hopefully that will force me to wrap it up!**_

_**Riza.**_


	21. Unbreakable Chap 1

**UNBREAKABLE**

_Part III of the Day Break Trilogy_

The darkness swam around them, fluid, thick, denying gravity its pull and lifting their bodies along in its cool, swift current.

Grimmjow couldn't see the others, he could see or hear nothing save the little form in his arms, shivering against him. He tried kicking out in the weightlessness but his own motion seemed to have no influence on his momentum.

Something brushed past him and he grabbed on to the tickle of fabric that almost slipped through his fingers. There was a tug and then hands reached out to find him, holding back tight. By the size and slenderness he knew it was Rukia, but even when he pulled her against him he couldn't hear her, nor did a sound come out when he tried to call her name. This place was without sound. Without sight.

Long minutes passed in the darkness before they could see the pinprick of light that must be their destination. It grew steadily, a blue-grey light that converge in a pure white light too brilliant to look at without squinting. As they got closer, enough light was cast on them that Grimmjow could see Nel's face scrunched in worry, even Rukia stiffened in anticipation of what would happen when they hit that light. He thought he could just make out the form of Ichigo to their left but then the light swept up on them and he was blind again.

The light was nothing like the soft touch of shadows, it was jarring, a heat was building around them and then a violent force, heavier and blunter than a wind but just as untouchable, ripped at them. The first noise Grimmjow heard was Rukia's shriek, she jerked from his side and their fingers just barely interlocked in time to keep her from blowing away but another wave of power and she was nearly dislodged. Nel remained safe against him but something was very clearly trying to pull the soul reaper from him. He thought he heard Ichigo's cry behind them but he didn't look away from the dark eyes locked on him. If they got separated, Rukia would be alone in this world without any sort of power.

"Hold on." He grunted out the obvious not knowing what else to say, to do. But a final burst hit then and she slid free. "Rukia!"

She was lost in seconds, now nothing but white visible to him, too harsh for his eyes and he tucked his face against the top of Nel's head.

"Nel's scared." He heard her whimper into him.

"I won't let go of you."  
>The light turned white hot, the air to thunder and and all was lost to sight and sound.<p>

* * *

><p>"So this is it, the home world of the Vandenreich."<p>

"SHUT-UP!" Urahara fell to his knees when he was struck, no mercy given by the soldier holding the chain that looped around his neck and he found himself momentarily strangled.

"Enough."

The tension released and he dropped ungraciously to the ground. A shackled hand rose to rub the raw flesh at his neck before making an attempt at getting back up. He made it to his knees but when he saw they had reached their destination he didn't bother rising further.

"Kisuke Urahara."

The voice came from the darkness at one end of the perfectly rounded stone court in which he now knelt. It was almost in the style of an old Greek amphitheatre, no ceiling covered the rising rows of stones seats nor the throne that rose up at one end. Their ceiling was instead the perpetual thunderstorm that roiled above their heads, though the intermittent flashes that came from the low hanging cumulonimbus clouds made no thunder that he could tell. Beyond the amphitheatre rose up a stone castle nestled on a barren landscape of dry orange dust and spotted with dead grey wood.

"You are mistaken." The voice continued from the darkness that even his sharp eyes could not penetrate. Still, there was no doubt he was being addressed by the King. "For we are humans, and our home world will always be the world of the living. This realm, is one we have claimed for our own. A forgotten place between Hueco Mundo and Soul Society, a pocket of time and space in which we were able to forge a liveable environment. And with all the spirit energy that gathers here from the overspill of two neighbouring spiritual worlds, it truly is a land where the Quincy can thrive."

"The Vale of Eden." Urahara whispered out. "The realm of balance, where lost souls are said to be converted back to energy. Is that where we are?"

"That is Soul Reaper mythology, based on your maniacal obsession with the balance of souls. But for all intents and purposes, yes, I believe this is the realm you would refer to as the Vale."

"It looks nothing like I imagined."

"We have sculpted it, to our needs."

"I've noticed. So that's how you have cut us off. From this point you could even interfere with the passage of souls between Soul Society and the World of the Living."

"You are correct."

"Well King of the Vandenreich, as a man of science, you have impressed me."

"And what about the rest of you, not devoted to science?"

"You disgust me, of course. You found perhaps the one pure realm in all the universe, untouched by the tampering of conscious life, existing only to help maintain the balance, and you turned it into an abhorrence. I am guessing the sky was not always storming?"

"What of it?"

"Your presence, your will and desire have twisted even the sky. Does that tell you nothing?"

"It tells me you are not the man I read about since our last encounter. You are not the calculating, logical scientist I wouldn't mind joining my ranks. You are emotional. How disappointing."

"Huh, emotional." Urahara considered, thought about how he felt when he'd fallen, lost. When he'd been wrapped in chains and drug back through the dark void to this place, his own blood painting once radiant robes. He thought about the friends he'd left behind in the sands of Hueco Mundo and their questionable fate. He thought about the day Uryu was taken. Yes. He was emotional. "How odd, I never would have described myself that way, but now that you say it, I must agree."

"The Great Urahara was not so great, in the end, it seems. Go, await your fate with those you call friends, it is a final courtesy I deign fit to show you."

The chains drew taught once more and Kisuke was drug to his feet. They exited the bowl of the amphitheatre and then crossed a small courtyard before going down, through a heavy door and down a deep and wending tunnel that would give claustrophobia even to a mole. At the end was a single door and there was no surprise after seeing the rest of the stone buildings when it opened upon a dungeon.

"Get in."

"Of course." Urahara stepped inside and the clank of the door sounded immediately at his back. His shackles had not been removed and the chain at his neck drug along behind him but the many pains in his body that flared as he walked down the stone steps were forgotten. For he did not see the friends he expected.

He approached the one nearest him, thin arms held straight above his head by heavy iron laced with fine blue lines of Quincy spells. Dirt and dry blood crusted his hair and muted its brilliance and the down-turned face was equally lost in the streaks of grime that coated it. Very gently, Urahara reached out and put a hand under that chin to guide the face up, afraid when he felt just how still he was there would be no life in him. But that fear was dashed when the midnight fire of his aqua eyes struck him.

"What a sad way to meet again, but here we are, Toshiro Hitsugaya."

* * *

><p>The dark King watched his soldiers hustle Urahara from the amphitheatre and then he turned back to the one standing on the far side of the court. "Now, I would like to meet our next guest. Tell Ryuken to bring her to me."<p>

"Yes sir."

The soldier hurried out along the stone path in the desert. The king waited but heard a startled cry and then shouts for help. He rose.

"Sir." The soldier had returned, his white uniform stained dark red in the front, but he was uninjured. "Ryuken Ishida is badly wounded. Other soldiers are taking him to the healers."

"Where is she? Where is the girl and Isshin Kurosaki?"

"They were not with him."

"WHAT?" the king began marching forward, out of the shadow that kept his features hidden. Now, though, in the eery storm-lit landscape of this world, his whole body was revealed, the sleeve that hung limp and empty at his side, the dark ruined skin at his neck that crept up his chin and distorted one whole side of his his face, the flesh still raw, a terrible mix between red and black and the form of his cheekbone and eye socket all too clear. The horrible burns extended over his nose and up his forehead, engulfing one eye entirely and just barely missing the other. He truly was a horrific sight and the soldier struggled to stand his ground and look his leader straight on. But the huffing breath of another soldier running in behind him drew his sight and the king's back behind him.

"Sir! The Dawn Sir, reports are coming in, I...Hueco Mundo., it's..."

"What?" The king saw the sweat on his face, the terror in his eyes. "Speak!"

"S-sir, Hueco Mundo has been lost. The Dawn...Lothure, Ishida, they were defeated, the palace destroyed and the Calvary...they were attacked, something about the sixth espada and the hollows turning on their masters. The survivors have retreated."

The atmosphere crackled with a build of energy. The sky darkened even further, and, if possible, the very air around the King darkened, perhaps by the same trick as the shadow cape at his back. In this realm so rich in reishi, it seemed that his very anger became a black energy around him. The two soldiers stood transfixed, awaiting their deaths, knowing that his uncontrolled wrath was literally lethal. But instead of striking out at them, the very heaven broke, thunder that had gone unheard for centuries boomed over the lands, shaking dry earth and bouncing back off sculpted rock. When the lightening struck it was raw energy, flashing down in a wiry chain on the horizon and the King's one hand clenched in furry.

"Grimmjow Jaggerjaques. I will destroy you."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Here it is, the beginning of the end! This is the final part in the trilogy, I have tried to include some of the new information we have learned about the Vandenreich in the canon, but since I started writing this before I knew certain things, there will definitely been alot of discrepencies, which I hope you don't mind. I'll be sticking with what I envisioned from the beginning and hope to bring this story to a satisfactory conclusion.<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	22. Unbreakable Chap 2

"Ichigo."

The searing light that had consumed him had left him temporarily blind and the teen soul reaper sat motionless waiting as the dark blurs on a backdrop of pure white became something he could see. The blur closest to him moved closer and spoke again.

"Ichigo, can you see anything?"

"Rukia? I thought I'd lost you. No I can't see yet, you?"

"Just colours, like your hair. I thought I'd lost you too. That place...it was so dark and I had no control but I felt Grimmjow. We tried to hold on to one another but when we hit the white light it was like it was trying to tear us apart. It did, in the end."

"The same thing happened to me." Ichigo said. "I had Uryu and as soon as we hit the light I felt this force trying to separate us. But then why would I end up with you?"

He blinked. Rukia became more than just a dark spot and he could make out her hand raised up to her chin in thought.

"I felt Nel with Grimmjow. He called my name, he tried to hold onto me, but he didn't call for Nel or seem to have any trouble keeping her close. Then here I am with you. The two soul reapers together, and the two hollows. And Uryu gone. I think I understand."

"What?"

But her attention turned from him to their surroundings. Things were coming back into focus faster now and she stood, inspecting the low-lit space they were in. She walked a few paces and held out her hand. The air cracked with energy and she cried out withdrawing, but for an instant a network of blue lines was visible. They disappeared again once the contact was gone.

"What was that, are you okay?"

She shook her hand out but nodded. "Fine. But it is as I expected. We must assume the Vandenreich have been here for quite some time and they have taken precautions. We were split up when we got here. The soul reapers sent here, in a cage made for soul reapers. The quincy is with neither of us, so Uryu has no doubt passed safely through the gate. And the espada are very likely also in a cage designed specifically for them. We may have made it to the Vandenreich home world Ichigo, but we are trapped."

"No, no way." Ichigo looked around. They were in a pit of sorts, the ground dry and dusty but the walls a high grey stone but nothing he couldn't easily jump out of with his soul reaper powers. However, when he raised his hand like Rukia had, the air cracked and an electric current shocked him before he withdrew.

"Damn."

Rukia was right. They were trapped.

* * *

><p>"Shit."<p>

"GRIMMJOW!"

"Nel don't touch me." He warned, unable to see her but waiting for her to pounce on him. He swallowed hard as he sat with his back against the perfectly straight, smooth stone wall behind him. All he could see was grey blurs at the moment. He had no idea where he was but by the feel of things he would be here for a while.

"It's seki seki or something." he tried to swallow again, mouth dry and his voice kept catching in his throat. "Oh shit, Nel."

"Grimmjow?" she whispered out. He felt her now, down by his feet, and raised his left hand.

"Here, come over here."

She made her way to him and he put his arm around her.

"I feel funny." she whimpered into his side.

"It's these st-stones...they are suppressing our spiritual p-pressure." His voice was shaky, everything in him was trying to contain this pain.

Lothure had destroyed his shoulder. That hammer had come down square on the joint, crushing it so horribly he couldn't even look at it. His collar bone was broken, his shoulder blade out of place at his back, his whole arm hung dead. It had been one of the most painful, shocking injuries of Grimmjow's life, but he had suffered it with all of his spiritual power in tact. He had been able to push through with the strength of Pantera. But now he was alone. He was naked and weak and there was nothing to dampen the reality of that or any of his other wounds and he found himself struggling to hold back tears and not faint.

The world came into focus finally and he could see they were in a long corridor, the walls a dark grey stone, possibly seki seki, though it was usually white, but still, something was definitely taking his strength. The perfectly squared stone ran in a long narrow hall that turned at a perfect ninety degree angle to the right at one end and to the left at the other.

"Where are we?"

"Must be a cage or something. N-nel, could you look and see what's down there?"

He didn't really want to send her on her own but he was not ready to move. She pulled away from him and took a few tentative steps in that direction. She kept moving until she could see.

"Another hallway." She said, running back. He rolled his head to the other turn and she looked there as well. "Same thing."

"Odd." he tried to make sense of it but nothing came to him. Why make a cage of hallways?

"Can Grimmjow move?"

"I really don't know."

"If Grimmjow gets away from these rocks will he be okay?"

"Maybe." He looked skyward. Without his powers these wall were far too high to scale. Beyond them, the heavens were a tumble of opaque clouds, just as charcoal grey as everything else in the landscape. Somewhere, thunder boomed and there was a weak flash of light that must have been a distant bolt of lightening.

"Then Grimmjow should try." Nel said. He turned back to her, remembering how much pain he had been in that day in the menos forest, that day when he realized that he actually didn't want her to leave him alone, that he wanted her to stay close so he could keep her safe. He had been prepared to let go, to close his eyes and wait for it to end until he felt her tiny fingers in his calf. Only when he'd seen her face had he found the strength to get up, fight past the pain and keep moving.

Somehow poison eating him from the inside out seemed like a pleasant dream compared to this. But she was still there before him, waiting for him to get up. He took hold of Pantera, powerless now except for its steal, and pushed the tip against the ground, also made of the smooth stone. Bracing his back against the wall, he pushed up with his legs and his left hand on the handle of his sword and stood feet stepped out to brace him against the wall.

Never had gravity felt so heavy. But he was standing, Nel watching him worriedly. He rolled to his left side so he could lean against the wall as he walked. He didn't even bother debating which way he should go, he was already facing this way so he marched on, one foot ahead of the other and Nel knotting her hand in his pant leg.

"Let's get out of here, kid."

* * *

><p>"Uryu?"<p>

He blinked but found the world was a blur until he felt something pressed into his hands. When he felt it was his glasses he put them on and found himself staring up at a familiar face.

"Orihime." She was pale, very pale, her eyes edged with something he couldn't quite distinguish, but when he saw the first fleck of crimson he became more alarmed. His memories seemed garbled, confused, he wasn't quite sure where he was but now he was more concerned about the healer before him as his eyes worked down her slender face to her white blouse not just speck but dashed with crimson, running in long swathes as if the blood had splattered on her thickly from some great force. She did not look to be hurt herself, but her whole body was trembling and he reached his hands out to her shoulders.

"What happened?"

"Uryu." she repeated his name, her slender fingers rose up to touch his face and he felt how much they were shaking. "I killed them."

"Who? Orihime, where are we, what happened?" He couldn't pull himself from her but he glanced beyond her to try and see. Foot-packed earth spread out in a field big enough for an army, low grey walls marking it off and rising up behind them to form a pair of symbolic doors where the real ones would appear when activated.

The gateway to the quincy home base. They were in Eden's Vale.

And then he began to remember. The day he was taken, the cell, the darkness, the shadows that seeped even into his mind. The things they'd fed him, spiritual foods, hollow meat- he had eaten other souls, he had almost lost his own. He saw Ichigo squaring off against him. He saw himself try with everything he had to kill him. And then he felt his body rip open and Ichigo cry while he held him in his arms.

"Orihime, you saved me." He said, shaking his head trying to slow the memories into a manageable stream. "You healed me didn't you? I was nearly dead."

"Yes, I found you after."

"After what?"

"After I killed them."

Her voice was so hollow, so void of everything that was Orihime. He felt fear. "Who? Orihime, what are you doing here?"

"Your father took me, Uryu. He nearly killed Isshin and then he brought us back. Soldiers met us. Isshin tried to fight but I just stood there. The moment I came through it was-like I could breath for the first time."

Her eyes were unfocussed and her voice was mixed between horror and wonder, amazement.

"It was like I could hear and see and feel for the first time. Like every day until today was a dream."

"Orihime-"

"I felt powerful."

The spirit energy. His quick mind came to the conclusion. He knew how much power he himself could glean from this environment, much more than Hueco Mundo or even Soul Society. Orihime must be feeding off that power too, but she did not know how to control it. It must be confusing her.

"It's okay, Orihime, I think I understand."

"But you don't, or you wouldn't be holding me."

"Why?"

"I think I might have killed him too."

"Who?"

"Your father."

His face tightened, but he didn't let her go.

"You said Isshin was fighting." He prompted.

"Yes. And they knocked him down. They kicked him, he was already so hurt and all I did was cry out for them to stop. I had my hand reached out, but I never even touched them. And then...he just exploded."

"My father?"

"No. The man who was hurting Isshin. There was light, I think it was my shun shun rikka, and then his body just...was everywhere. And everyone was screaming, other people were hurt. Isshin was still alive, he was yelling at me to run. I didn't see your father, I don't know what happened. I don't remember running but I must have, because I'm back here, where we came through."

"Orihime, it's not your fault, you were only trying to defend yourself. You'll be okay, just try not to take in so much energy."

"But I can't help it, it's everything, it's the air I'm breathing."

"You're just overwhelmed. Come on." he stood up. "Soldiers will probably be coming."

"Uryu..."

She didn't rise when he held out his hand to her and seeing the utter trembling of her body he immediately knelt before her again.

"What have I done?" her eyes were cast down on her blouse, the blood on her hands. He swallowed, taking those hands in his own and bowing his head.

"You defended yourself, Orihime, from the enemy, from evil. The question is, what have _I_ done? I turned on my friends, I fought Ichigo, I wanted to kill him."

Neither looked at the other, but she leaned forward ever so slightly so their foreheads touched. They stared down at their interlaced fingers, faint droplets falling down on them as each human tried to steady their breaths in this unsteady world.

"It wasn't your fault." Orihime sniffed back but the tears still fell. "So many weeks they had you. I could feel it, when I healed you, the things they did. Oh Uryu-"

"I'll be alright now, thanks to you and your power. I know it's hard, but we do have to move, Orihime, we have to get out of here and help our friends."

"Our friends?"

"Yes," He leaned back now and, seeing her calmed down a bit and her eyes more focused, he stood and this time she followed. He never let go of her hands as he explained. "Ichigo came through too, and Rukia. They would have been redirected to the soul reaper prison. I can get them out but Grimmjow and Nel are also here and they-" he swallowed, "Oh no, the hollows go to the Labyrinth."

"What is that?"

"It's some horrible thing the king created when he first invaded Hueco Mundo and stray hollows kept coming through to here. He believes they deserve punishment or something. They go to the maze. It has no exit and there is this thing that lives inside-"  
>"Like the Minotaur." She interrupted.<p>

"What?"

"Theseus defeated the Minotaur in King Minos's maze, remember in Ancient History class?"

"Mythology...yeah I guess you're right, but it's not a Minotaur, it's a hideous failure, one of the King's first hybrids, a monster, very dangerous. We'll get Ichigo and Rukia first, then we will go there together. Come on." But his hand pulled taught and he found her pulling against him.

"Orhime, you have to come with me."

"No."

"What?"

"No, Uryu. Go save Ichigo and Rukia. There might not be time. There are two of us, and two directions to go. I will go find Grimmjow and Nel."

"Orihme, this is the Vandenreich base of operations, it's too dangerous."

"Yes, for them." Her free hand clenched in the soaked red fabric of her shirt. "Uryu, this is it, isn't it? This is our last stand. It's different than before, than with Aizen. There were so many people fighting, so many plans and powers, but this is just us, the six of us left. This is our last stand and we might not make it. So you can't protect me. I have to do it for myself, and I have to do everything I can to help win. So tell me where the Labyrinth is and then you have to let me go."

He faced her straight on, registering every word, and a very large part of him feeling overwhelmingly sad that this girl that he loved- maybe not like Ichigo loved her, but a deep abiding affection- had been just as battle-hardened as the rest of them in this war. And every word she spoke was true. Gently, he let her hand slide free of his own.

"It will take you some time to get there, but with your powers, I think you will be alright." He pointed into the distance. "For most people leaving the sanctuary of the high stones is difficult due to the wind but use your shield and you should be able to cross the plain easily. It is a straight shot in this direction, keep going until the ground gives out, the maze is cut right into the bedrock. They won't be able to get out because the maze is designed to suppress hollow power, however, you should still have your own. Break some of the wall and they will be able to escape, just do not go down there or you too will get lost and the beast could attack you. Stay above, find them that way, and don't get caught by the king's men. They will leave the beast to kill Grimmjow and Nel, but once they feel the maze break, they will come for you."

"Alright, I understand. And you? Will you be able to free Ichigo and Rukia?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Will we meet back here?"

Uryu thought this over for a moment. "It is a dangerous location, they will no doubt keep it guarded once they return. But at the same time, there is no where safe for us to meet again. We'll just have to fight them off. With Ichigo and Grimmjow we should be fine. Wait."

He paused in thought, "No, I take that back. Hide where you can see the gate. Wait for me to return and make my move."

"Your move?"

"You healed me, undid their brainwashing, but they don't know that. To them, I am still the new commander of the Dawn. I can use that to walk straight up to the king and stab a knife through his heart."

"Uryu!"

"But not until after our plan. When you get back, I will emerge and send the guards away, then we'll go from there."

"Okay, got it. Good luck, Uryu."

"You too, Orihime."


	23. Unbreakable Chap 3

"Hmm? Nel? Come on, I need sleep."

The tugging at his leg was insistent, but her words still jumbled in the grogginess of sleep.

"Nel, I just got back, please. Go see Halibel if you need something."

Still he couldn't quite make out her words, but the desperation in her voice was enough to make him roll over on the bed. It was much harder than it should have been, even after a long few days in Hueco Mundo. The night seemed so much darker too, her face was barely a shadow to his eyes that should be able to penetrate this darkness.

"Nel, what is it? We're safe here in the world of the living. Ichigo, Halibel and I are all here to keep you safe."

"No, Grimmjow."

Her voice sounded so strained, he squinted to see her.

"Nel?"

"Grimmjow!" Though her voice was shrill it lacked the harshness and clarity it normally had.

"What's wrong? What's going on?" He tried to reach for her but his right arm didn't move.

"Grimmjow needs to get up!"

He tried. He tried to see past the dark, hear past the fog, push against the bed but nothing was working.

"Grimmjow please!"

"NEL!"

He lurched off the smooth rock beneath him, failing to sit and falling back painfully. The thunder clouds above draped over them, flickering inconstantly like a florescent light on its last legs. And there, to his side, was her broken face, tears streaming down in hysteria.

"Nel, what happened?"

"Is Grimmjow really awake?" Her fingers dug deep into his ribs where she hovered over him.

"Did I pass out?"

"Nel doesn't know. Grimmjow just started talking to Halibel and then he fell down and he wouldn't answer Nel!"

"Oh..." his eyes closed. He felt her head press closer into his chest, her mask shaking against him as she sobbed on.

"Nel was so scared."

He couldn't raise his arm to comfort her, it was dead. He felt nothing below his shoulder, and he wished to the thunderous heavens he couldn't feel that either. He cracked his eyes open and turned his head just enough to take a look at the wound and instantly regretted it. Nel looked up when she felt his stomach dip beneath her head before contracting tightly and he gagged harshly. There was nothing left in him to come up but the dry heaves were painful and left him gasping, hot tears falling back into his hair line. He couldn't even stomach seeing such a wound, how was he supposed to keep moving with the pain wearing him down?

"Grimmjow?" She seemed to understand he wasn't moving anytime soon, maybe he never would again. "Is Halibel dead?"

"Yes."

This brought more tears. He watched her cry for their lost companion. He himself hadn't even had the chance to really absorb that reality. His reaction had been to go on a bloody rampage, and he'd followed that blood lust even here, even with such wounds, and now they would die. He'd lost Halibel, and he'd condemned Nel to death as well.

"She could have done it." he whispered, like he often did with Nel, talking more to himself than her. "She was stronger, she could have gotten out of here, found the King, ended this."

"Nel doesn't want her to be gone. She made Grimmjow happy."

His eyes shut again, but his lids failed to keep the tears from trailing out. Nel settled against him once more, her slight weight, her presence, the only comfort she could give.

"Nel doesn't want Grimmjow to go either, but if he needs to sleep, she will keep watch for him."

"...thanks."

There was quiet. The world beyond their uneven breaths, the sniff of the child, the throbbing pain in his body was lost to them. Their whole reality was contained in the closeness of their bodies, the mutual breaking of their hearts.

Until they heard it.

The horrible wail, both hollow deep and piercingly, humanly sharp echoed off every corner, every flat wall and floor until it echoed off into the cloud laden sky above. The second cry seemed to reverberate straight through them, leaving traces of the pure pain and despair that filled the utterance. With the third, Grimmjow was sitting, despite every pain, the very lack of strength in him, and his good arm held Nel close to his chest. He tried to follow the sound as it bounced off the walls like refracted light, but it was impossible to tell where it was coming from in this twisted maze. Forward, backward, down one of the many side tunnels- it could not be tracked, the only thing Grimmjow knew, the thing that screamed from his instincts, was that whatever made that noise had sensed them, it was coming for them, and staying put was not a choice.

"Pantera..." Grimmjow slid his hand from Nel's back to the handle of his silent blade. He had no power here, he was just fortunate he still had the steel of his blade. As before, he used it to push himself up, Nel steadfastly as his ankles.

He may not have much left, but he would at least face the thing that killed him like a man.

* * *

><p>"So they stole you Bankai?" Urahara asked the haggard group around him. "And they need to keep you alive in order to continue using it?"<p>

"Yes, that is an accurate summation." Byakuya nodded from where he sat next to his much larger companion, Captain Komamura.

"Each of us were terribly wounded during the fight. We all thought we were dead before we woke up down here." Byakuya continued.

"No doubt Soul Society thinks the same." A sharp voice came out of the dark. Soifon had not been so quick to greet Urahara with open arms and remained against a further wall.

"Captain Soifon thinks that this way Soul Society won't try to rescue them." Renji added from his Captain's other side. He was certainly worse for wear, but Urahara had been extremely relieved to find him and Chad alive down here, though saddened to learned that Renji's bankai had also been stolen.

"And to heighten the panic and chaos." Kisuke guessed. "But as far as you know, it is still safe? Soul Society has not been taken?"

"As far as we know." Byakuya agreed. "We have been here a long time, much has transpired since then, but none have joined us here. It seems that despite our failures, our comrades were able to learn from our mistakes."

"That is good news indeed, but after all this time, I would have liked to have learned more."

The clank of chains brought their attention just beside them, to the figure so slim and cast in shadows he barely stood out from the wall he was chained to.

"We do know something."

"Captian Hitsugaya," Byakuya warned but Kisuke felt the tension and looked to the captain who had been nearly silent since his arrival.

"Captain Kuchki, do you really mean to spare feelings in this situation?"

"What is it? What happened?" Kisuke insisted. Renji also seemed a bit alarmed, he hadn't been here long and clearly also had not been told this news.

"Before my own battle ended, we were informed that squads three and twelve were all but completely annihilated."

Urahara tensed, his gaze shifting to the other captains to verify the truth in this, but it was clear they too knew.

"What?" Renji gasped. "What do you mean? That's not possible."

"It is." Soifon confirmed darkly.

"But...everyone? Kira...?"

"Is dead." His captain affirmed, though with less detachment than the others. Renji looked his captain straight on, the shock settling slowly about the news of his old friend. "It is a terrible loss." Byakuya added.

"...yes sir." Chad put a hand on his shoulder.

"But it would seem both captains survived." Komomora said, "at least on that day. Kurotsuchi was not with his squad, and Otoribashi survived his encounter."

"They didn't take his bankai?" Urahara questioned.

"They couldn't." his eyes shot to Soifon in the dark.

"Couldn't?" Urahara caught the glint in her eye, "You know why don't you?"

"I couldn't be sure until you told us about Kurosaki."

"Their bankais cannot be taken, because they are Visoreds?"

"So it would seem."

"Well, then that is something at least. No doubt that has helped to keep them at bay and like I told you earlier, the King must be hurt if he wanted Orihime so bad. There is still hope, Ichigo could stop him."

"Let us hope he learned something about our powers from the times we fought him." Toshiro sighed, leaning his head back against the wall, "Because it's _our_ Bankais that will be standing between him and the King."

* * *

><p>"Are you still cold?" Ichigo looked down at the shaking white clad girl who had reluctantly curled against him where they lay.<p>

After many failed escape attempts, Ichigo had finally relented to stop, at least long enough to catch his breath, only to find Rukia as cold as ice. His powers kept him protected from the cold air and heat-sucking stone beneath them, but she was as naked as a new born in this place so he'd half convinced, half forced her to let him keep her warm. They lay side by side, his arms around her, gentle yet strong, and what had at first felt awkward now felt comforting in this bleak place.

In all these weeks of fighting and surviving, here, trapped in a cell and laying in each other's arms, it was the first chance they'd had to be friends again. Her face was pressed into his chest, his heart still thrummed from his earlier efforts to escape and she could smell the dampness of sweat, feel the crisp of dried blood all over him. He was still badly wounded despite everything. He'd taken a near fatal hit in his stomach, and though Zangetsu had an incredible power to hold him together, he still needed time. The wound had stopped bleeding already, which was really a miracle and only due to Ichigo's enormous spiritual pressure, but that didn't mean he wasn't still in pain and still very weak.

"Rukia?"  
>"Sorry." She whispered up to him. "Yes, but this feels better." She answered his question.<p>

"What were you thinking about?"

"You actually."

"What?" she felt him shift to look down at her and the situation threatened to resume it's previous awkwardness.

"That battle with Uryu was terrible, Ichigo. I was just thinking how amazing it is that you're even still moving."

"Oh." he relaxed again. "I guess. But it's still not enough."

"It doesn't have to be you, you know. Who saves everyone. It shouldn't be up to you."

"But it is, in the end. It always is, whether I want it to or not. We were the last resistance, and now look at us. If we don't escape, I think that's it, Rukia, I think the world might actually end."

"Don't be so damned arrogant." her tone was familiar, that scolding voice he hated so much but yet somehow made him smile now, at the end of it all.

"Yeah, well, I think I have an excuse now, to be a little full of myself."

She remembered everything with Aizen, everything before that even, and she too, smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that."  
>"But you were always with me, Rukia. You always fought just as hard, even harder in a way, because sometimes your choice to fight put you against Soul Society."<p>

"You must always fight with your heart, Ichigo. I am loyal to Soul Society, but since I met you, I seemed unable to ignore what my heart wants."

"That's good."

"In some ways."

There was silence for several long heartbeats, then she pulled back her head to look up at him. "Do you love Orihime?"

"Wh-what?"

"It's a simple question."

"Why are you asking this, now of all times?"

"When else can I ask you, Ichigo? You just said, this might very well be the end of the world. So if it is, if you see her knowing that, will you tell her how you feel?"

"I haven't even said I love her yet."

"It was sort of a rhetorical question." She smirked, "I think we both know the real answer."

"Maybe we do. But...I don't _know_ love, not like that I mean. I love Orihime, but I guess, I just haven't figured out what that means, _how_ I love her. After I met you, I didn't really have time to think about that stuff, I had so much Soul Reaper business to deal with. And then, after Aizen, I felt like I was alone, all my friends still had spiritual power, could see the other side. We...drifted. And now, I don't know."

"I understand."

"Why do you ask?"  
>"Because I've wasted more years than you've lived not telling Renji that I love him and I didn't want you to do the same."<p>

Her abruptness at first caught him off guard, but then as he reflected on the relationship of the two Soul Reapers over the last few weeks of war, stealing quiet moments, leaning slightly closer than necessary into one another, he realized there really was no surprise.

"It's only words, Rukia, I think he knows."

"But I should say it. I want to. I want to see him one more time before it's all over."

"That ass, he should have said it to you first. But enough of this, Rukia, I don't want to sit here and talk about what we're going to do before the world ends. How about we start planning what we'll do after we save the world. And in order to do that, we'll have to get out of here."

He slid away from her, "tell me if you get too cold." He picked up his zanpakuto and she sat up, holding her knees close to her chest.

"Okay, Mr. Confidence, I guess I can stand a little cold if it means you can save the world again."

"Good." He lifted his sword high above his head and aimed it at the glowing bars for the hundredth time.

"Stop." The black blade remained above his head, and Ichigo looked around for the source of the voice. When the slim figure dropped off the ledge above and landed before them, Rukia stood and Ichigo lowered his sword.

"Uryu?"

"Ichigo, Rukia..." he looked between the two, his chest heaving and sweat slicking his hair. He was winded from his journey here. "It took me longer than I expected to get here. But I should be able to get you out before other soldiers come."

"Wait, Uryu, I don't understand, you remember who you are? And how are you healed?" Ichigo asked as the quick eyed quincy examined the spiritual structure caging them.

"Orihime escaped, found me once we crossed over. She's gone for the others."

"What, on her own?"

"It was her choice, Ichigo." he defended. "I didn't want to let her go but...well, everything is at stake right now, we had to take the risk."

"So you're really okay?"

"Yeah, but I'm.." he glanced at the many wounds on Ichigo's body and Rukia's white robes, "I'm sorry for what I did."

"It wasn't you," Rukia reassured, "and we were the ones who failed you. You got captured, and we couldn't rescue you."

"I don't blame you." Uryu was now kneeling at the base, his fingers tracing quincy spell work in the hard stone beneath him.

"Can you get us out?" Ichigo asked after several long moments.

"Yes, just hold-"

"Commander Ishida! Commander, is that you?" Uryu stiffened, his eyes met the pair for a second before the ledge above was suddenly crowded with soldiers. "Hey it is!" a voice called down, "he's not dead after all."

"Of course not." Uryu shot coldly in a perfect imitation of his brainwashed self. "I wouldn't be taken out by a shinigami substitute or his small fry companion. I don't know what you've heard but I brought the prisoners back myself just a few hours ago."

"Oh that was you." they jumped down to join them. "Security got the signal that four prisoners had come through, two shinigami, two hollow, and a Vandenreich, but we didn't know who it was."

"Who else would it be? My father already secured the girl."  
>"Well, actually sir..."<p>

"What?"

"She escaped."

"_What?"_

The fear this single word lit in the others was astonishing to Ichigo and Rukia. They didn't really like to think what Uryu had done in his brainwashed days to warrant such intimidation.

"We're sorry, but her powers were out of control, she killed everyone."

"Wait, what?" Ichigo interrupted but Uryu shot him a death glare.

"Shut up prisoner."

"She went crazy or something and now they can't find her. But the King sent us to get these two. He said he had an unfinished experiment or something with them."

Ichigo's eyes went wide and he looked to Rukia. It seemed so long ago that the King had threatened to string him up like he had Grimmjow and break his soul, see what it did if Rukia's soul was also gone. Now, would seem to be his perfect opportunity.

"Is that so?" Uryu turned back to the prisoners and his hand twitched slightly. There was no doubting his thoughts, he would try to take this group on himself, save them, but beside him Ichigo saw Rukia shake her heard, practically imperceptibly and he couldn't even be sure he saw it, but there was something understood between the three who had fought together so long and the moment passed, Uryu turning back to the others. "Then let's not keep him waiting."

Rukia wanted him to take them, wanted him to keep up his cover and Ichigo understood. It may be suicide, but they just said they would rather plan for saving the world than for letting it end so the risk was worth it. If Uryu could take them right up to the king, then let him, and see how it all plays out.

The plan lost some ground, however, when the blue glow of the cage flared brighter and Ichigo watched Rukia fall unconscious before him.

"What did you-" but a second, much stronger wave and he felt gravity lift, the ground coming up to meet him and then the motionless dark.


	24. Unbreakable Chap 4

"Well, now what?" The mismatched pair stood before the maw of the dark tunnel, seeming to go down deep into the earth. Next to it, a ramp rose steeply up, and to both sides the tunnels stemmed off right and left. Until now, they had faced no other option than right or left- up and down was a whole new thing to consider.

"Nel wants to go up."

"I know, so do I, but maybe that's the point, I mean, who's going to go down? Maybe it's a trick."

"Hmm..." She seemed to consider this deeply. "Or maybe the bad guys want Grimmjow to think it's a trick."

"Ugh." he didn't want to start down that route. He was exhausted enough as it was, and swallowing back pain like he'd never had to do before; he wasn't about to start a psychological evaluation of the labyrinth's architect.

"Fine, let's just see what's up the ramp, we can always come back if it doesn't look good."

"Okay good, Nel really didn't want to go down that way." She let go of his leg to move up the ramp while he staggered forward with the help of Pantera at a much slower pace.

"Nel, just wait for me, I don't want-" He wasn't sure what registered first, the heavy chink of stone meeting stone, the echoing vibration of the solid impact, or the fact that he was suddenly staring at a perfectly smooth wall of stone.

"No..." He dropped Pantera to place his palm against the wall that had dropped into place almost the moment Nel had left him. "NO! NEL!"

"Grimmjow!" He could barely hear her, that meant the wall was thick.

"Hold on!" He called. "Just..." but what? What could he tell her? What could he do? He already knew Pantera couldn't cut this stone, he had tried hours ago to carve some markings to use as a point of reference but not a scratch had been left in it.

"Grimmjow..."  
>Slowly, he let his legs give and he slid down the wall, hand still against it as if he could still feel her through the ton of stone. He let his forehead rest against it as well, and tried to keep the despair from his voice when he spoke.<p>

"It's okay. I'll find you." But he knew that he would probably never see her again. He had been resigned to dying in this place, but at least they would have been together. Now, he had brought her to this world not only to die, but to die terrified and alone. "I'm sorry." But he whispered the word, she would not hear.

That deathly voice screamed out. Its soulless scream echoed much sharper and louder off the walls and Grimmjow found his hand back on Pantera.

"GRIMMJOW!"

"NEL!" he stood. "Nel stay there, I'm coming, I swear, I'll find you."  
>"It was so loud!"<p>

"I know. Just don't move. I'm coming"  
>"..Okay."<p>

The scream repeated, a definite hint of blood lust in that sorrowful howl. The despair may not have disappeared, but he was definitely not going to sit by and wait for that beast to find Nel.

"I promise, Nel, I will find you."

* * *

><p>It had taken everything he had to tear himself away from that door, and the only thing powering him forward was the hope he'd find the other side of it. Her tiny voice, the thought of her waiting for him all alone, made him move with a speed he hadn't before been able to muster. That wasn't to say he was moving fast, but each laboured step was taken without pause, without hesitation, no matter what shocks of pain movement sent through him. He wasn't even really sure how he was still alive at this point, he supposed since the bleeding stopped he would make it, but he couldn't imagine how his destroyed shoulder wouldn't be causing other issues, like stray bone fragments in his blood system or something.<p>

But Hell, what couldn't he survive if it meant saving Nel?

He had chosen to move into the tunnel leading down. It was dark in here, but his eyes were sharp and there were patches of light here and there, though he wasn't sure of their light source. Some instinct in him was telling him to turn back, as the air grew humid, the stench of rotting flesh pungent, and the floor steepened, slopping further into the monster's lair. But if he found the monster, then at least he would know it didn't have Nel.

The next scream made him stop, not out of fear, but because it was so loud it half paralysed him, the piecing pitch ran straight through his ear drums and into his skull.

"Come and get me, you Son of a Bitch!" His voice echoed along the tunnel. The next scream had a definite note to it that indicated it had heard, and the audible clunks meant it was on its way. He glanced around in the dark and found a smaller side tunnel to use as partial concealment. He would face this thing, but it wouldn't hurt to get a look at it first.

He leaned back against a damp, grimy wall. This part of the maze was very different, the size and shape of the tunnels less uniform and more organic, as if they had already existed in the earth. Perhaps that was the case, and the maze above had been constructed based on this natural network. The stone still kept his power at bay, but he was starting to feel like that suppression wasn't as strong down here. It was hard to tell though, since he knew he was also being fuelled by the need to find Nel.

The footsteps grew closer, he caught the eery silhouette of the monster on a far wall just like in some cheesy horror film. He slid a bit further down the side tunnel he was in, just to give himself a little more space. And then it emerged into his line of sight, staring forward, not yet noticing him, and giving him a chance to take it in.

He recognized it.

It took some time, in the dark and distress of this place, but as he took in the stocky hoofed legs, the humanoid torso and thick brown mane, he started to guess where this creature had come from. When it turned his way and he saw the narrowed faced, antlered skull, he knew just exactly from whom this creature had been created.

Halibel had said Mila Rose had been deformed, experimented on. Well, in those experiments, the King must have taken her left arm, because it was from three left arms that this creature was created. Ayon, created from the left arms of Halibel's fraccion. Though as Grimmjow watched it turn and saw spouts of deformed wings at its back, one hand discoloured and only claws for fingers, he was certain that the King had added to the chimera with some other poor numeros. He could only be glad that Halibel never had to know the fate of her other companions.

Ayon stomped around, sniffing, and it didn't take it long to turn its head toward him. It was impossible to see its eyes down here, but the bunching of its muscles was certainly enough to tell him it was time to move.

He moved back, deeper into the tunnel, seeing now that it was Ayon, the hybrid was far too large to get in here. But it still tried. Grimmjow avoided his massive reach, standing at roughly ten feet, Grimmjow was at a definite disadvantage in terms of the reach of his sword. Clawed fingers scraped over the rock and the beast tried to squeeze in deeper. Maybe he could get it stuck, Grimmjow thought, then see where this tunnel led, get out of this situation without a fight. But he had no such luck when something caught him around the ankle and he fell on his back.

The snake-like tail had him tight, and pulled him forward while greedy hands made a grab for him. But Grimmjow still had his working hand on Pantera and he made quick work of the tail. Ayon screeched in agony as he sliced the end free. Claws just missed him before he worked back into the tunnel, tasting vile blood that had sprayed back on him. Ayon thrashed against the narrow walls, at first in pain but now in fury. Grimmjow raised Pantera again. This was probably his best chance at landing a significant blow, while the beast had limited motion, but getting past those claws was a challenge.

Its screech was deafening him. Those massive jaws opened and closed hysterically and the longer Grimmjow stood waiting to make his move, the less he wanted to. His body really couldn't take any more damage, and one hit from this thing could be it. He didn't really expect to survive, but he wouldn't throw his life away until he really had to.

"I really hate to run from a fight, especially after I called you out." He lowered Pantera. "Do me a favour, get yourself wedged in here real tight so I don't have to worry about you anymore."

He followed the tunnel deeper into the darkness, the smells of rank meat became distant and even that howling scream was only on the peripheral of his mind as he was forced to sense out in the dark, no more hidden sources of light to guide him. He felt the walls closing in closer to his body but he had already committed to this plan of action and he wouldn't turn back unless he had to.

When he finally became completely blind in the dark, and the tunnel gave way to an opening, he did feel the first pricks of panic. No matter hardened warrior, blood lustful killer, steadfast soldier- no one liked to feel lost in the dark, with nothing but the unknown pressing in on you from all sides. Right now, he could still turn back, follow the tunnel toward where he knew there was light. But he if walked into the open space, he risked never being able to find this spot again. One mistep, one forgotten turn, and he would be as stranded in this opacity as life raft at the mercy of the sea.

He calmed his mind and settled his nerves before moving beyond the tunnel. It felt like an intersection, as he patted the wall next to him and found another opening. He considered moving further around, to feel if there were one or more other tunnels branching off from here but he also didn't want to risk losing his original path, so he turned right into this tunnel, assuring himself he could still get back to the light from here.

After seven more turns in the dark, pinpricks became thick tines jabbing into his chest. He was definitely on the verge of panic now, feeling claustrophobic as the darkness loomed on endlessly around every corner, and every step could be fatal as he could not see the dangers lurking for him.

Then, finally, he made a turn and perceived the faintest break in the endless obscurity: just a touch of a grey haze looming in the dark.

He limped forward, Pantera scraping off the floor until a haze became a glow and grey turned to washed and flickering orange. He was just beginning to make out the walls when his foot caught on something and he fell forward onto a mess of broken stone on the floor.

"Ugh." He shifted in the pile so that the pressure was off his bad shoulder but then just stopped, allowing himself a second to breath and let his eyes readjust to the dim light.

After a moment, he wished it was dark again.

Firstly, the stones he believed he was lying on were in fact a snare of broken bones, porous, old, piled on top of one other for what looked like years, even though Ayon could only have been down here since Aizen's defeat. But still, as he pulled himself up and saw the forms, they were clearly hollows who had died over time as they were sent here. Perhaps these skeletons had been built up over the years, perhaps another beast before Ayon had been here, or perhaps...Ayon was no the only monster in here.

The thought stilled him. He ceased his movements in the jangling mess of calcium and cartilage and listened hard in the dark. He heard nothing, and in the faint light, he saw nothing. He reassured himself that anything that had been living down here would have heard him long before now, and forced himself to move forward.

Still, as he moved, no amount of self reassurance could keep his instincts from remaining on edge.

* * *

><p>"I'm fine." the weak voice protested against the movements of the large captain of the Seventh Division, and against his wishes, Hitsugaya found himself much hihger in the air, sitting atop the shoulders of Captain Komamura as he leaned against the wall. Though he protested to the undignified position for a captain, his arms certainly felt relief when they were able to relax and blood flow into them again. Likewise, the souls of his feet were thankful for the rest. He sighed in both frustration of his situation and relief from his discomfort. Komamura was large enough that such relief was capable even at the level of his sitting, so he settled himself for the night while the others were free to move elsewhere in the dungeon to find sleep.<p>

"Why him?" Kisuke finally asked Renji as they found a place away from the others. Though the others had readily brought Urahara up to speed, their prolonged captivity seemed to have brought on routines they themselves were not even aware of, and only Renji, Chad and Urahara were still awake enough to talk. The dungeon grew quiet and Renji answered him in a whisper.

"My Captain didn't give me all the details, but what he said was..."

"What?"

"Well, I find it hard to believe, but he said Captain Hitsugaya tried to take his own life recently. He was caught, however, and since then has been chained up."

"Interesting."

"I'm sorry?" Renji didn't hide the note of annoyance, "but I see nothing interesting about it at all."

"I do apologize, lieutenant, but I, like you, don't see mere captivity, even torture, as enough to make a captain commit suicide, therefore, I think we can conclude that Captain Hitsugaya believed that in killing himself, he would also rid the world of his bankai."

"You mean, take it away from the person who stole it?" Chad questioned knowingly.

"Precisely." Kisuke couldn't keep the smile of a teacher who's student was catching on. "He must have thought that in ending his life, he would end his power that has probably been used against his own comrades. It explains why the King has kept all of them, really. He must need them to be alive in order to use their bankais."

"What does this mean, then?" Renji asked. "I mean, how does this information help us?"

"All information is helpful, Renji, never forget that. However, I will have to contemplate all the implications of this. Still, I am fairly confident this is good news for us."

"Good," the red haired lieutenant sighed, "because right now, I think we could all use some of that."

* * *

><p>"Captain Uryu, why are we stopping? The prisoners will regain consciousness any moment."<p>

"I know." Uryu met the gaze of his subordinate with a stare that read _dare to challenge me._ The soldier hesitated, but a moan from Ichigo spurred him to continue.

"The King ordered us to bring them straight to him, sir. We shouldn't stop."

The others nodded their agreement but were less ready to speak up.

"And I will bring them to the King. But don't you think we should also be searching for the other escaped prisoner? The one who made that mess back there?"

They had crossed through the devastating scene of where Orihime had ripped those Vandenreich apart out of her control.

"Ah-"

"The answer is yes. You," he nodded to one member of the group, "carry the girl. I'll get Kurosaki. I want the rest of you to search the desert around the Soul Reaper cage, she may have gone to rescue them."

"Yessir." The rest left, only one remained, carrying Rukia. He could easily take this man on his own. He had to repress a smile.

"U-Uryu?" Ichigo had come too, his arms were bound at his back but Uryu had looped his own under him to keep him upright.

"Shut up, prisoner."

Ichigo glanced the other guard.

"Uryu...now."

Ichigo hit the ground when the support was lost but mere seconds later there was another thud and the other quincy landed next to him.

"I wasn't sure just how you wanted to handle this." Uryu knelt, cradling Rukia, but swiped a hand over Ichigo's bonds to dissipate them.

"I'm not sure either, but we can't go after the King without a plan. And I'm worried about Orihime and the others."

"Fair enough, but she's strong Ichigo, she can do this."

"Maybe, but I think we should all be together before we attack. And I want to find my father, Renji and Chad and...your father."

"I agree, there is no way to know what exactly would happen when we face him. We may need to get out fast. I know where Renji and Chad were taken, Ichigo, they aren't alone."

"You mean Urahara?"

"Most likely, but there are others. You remember how along time ago they failed to take your bankai?"

"Yeah."  
>"Well, they-"<p>

"That's enough."

Ichigo and Uryu froze at the new voice. "So, does this mean you've betrayed us, Uryu?"

A girl stood in all white, not much bigger than Rukia, youthful looking but a hateful smile plastered on her face. Next to here was tall slender figure with a high collar and long black hair, male or female was hard to tell. Finally there were two men, one with hair cropped into a mohawk, the other looked serious and stern, like a university professor.

"Bambietta." Uryu addressed.

"It was that girl, wasn't it?" She demanded, "the one that went berserk. She reversed all the hard work we put into you."

"You could say that."  
>He set Rukia on the ground gently and let his quincy medallion shift out from under his sleeve.<p>

"Don't bother, Ishida, you no longer stand a chance against us Stern Ritter and you know it." She reached inside her breast pocket and pulled out a medallion.

"BANKAI!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>So, obviously this has broken from canon since we've seen alot more of the Vandenreich since I started writing this but I will just keep with what I envisioned. I am a bit sad to see the loss of interest in this one, but I will try to conclude it anyway. I've never discontinued a story and I don't really want to leave this unfinished.<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	25. Unbreakable Chap 5

Grimmjow gagged again, not able to keep the stench from activating his reflex. As he'd move forward, he'd discovered fresher kills. He started to think that maybe the bones back down the tunnel weren't old, simply picked clean. The ones at his feet, now, however, must have been killed only days ago, but down here in the dank, unfiltered air, the decay and rot of flesh was overwhelmingly.

He lost his battle with his gag reflex when his foot slipped in meat so rancid it melted under the pressure and gaseous vapour escaped it, wafting up to him as he struggled not to fall completely into the carcass. He got a grip on the wall but dropped Pantera as he dry heaved, which only caused him to breathe in more of the stench.

When his stomach calmed, he struggled to bend down and retrieve Pantera from the mess at his feet. The ooze of body fluids was reluctant to release his Zanpakuto but in the end he found the handle and pulled his sword out, vainly trying to flick the viscous liquids from it.

He gagged again.

"Dammit." He whispered in faint glow of fire—fire someone must have lit, or perhaps by some quincy magic just glowed on perpetually on the torches lining the walls. He had tried to carry one with him for better light but it was impossible to hold onto both torch and sword.

He kept moving. There had to be a way out of this hell, up to the sharply formed maze above, back to Nel. There was no logic to this network he made his way through now, some tunnels too narrow to ever manoeuvre through. He followed the torches. If something down here smarter than Ayon had lit them, he would assume it was to light the most used path. That also meant, however, he may very well run into that someone.

But all hesitation left him when a breath of air finally reached him. He saw natural light, even if it was only that grey overcast haze from the desert storm.

"I'm coming Nel." He hurried forward, well, as much as he could, but the clank of dry bone stopped him.

Less skeletons littered this area, but something was disturbing those he'd left behind.

He picked up his pace.

When Ayon's roar came, it echoed off the tunnel walls and sounded like it was just behind him. When he felt the quake in the earth, he knew he didn't have much time.

"SHIT!"

The light at the end of the tunnel might as well have been a hundred miles away when the next roar was well and truly at his back. He had one moment where he felt sad—felt despair and regret for never having found Nel—and then he felt the beast tear into him.

He was very confused when grey light struck, and didn't remember escaping into the open space he now seemed to be in. Then he began to feel the burn in his leg that had been fractured by Lothure, see the drag marks in the dirt where he must have been thrown by the beast. He was afraid to look at it, afraid that the slowly increasing intensity of pain would turn into something he couldn't handle. But when a blood thirsty roar reminded him a monster was still trying to eat him, he forced himself to sit up.

It looked like a t-rex had attacked him. The black pants Ichigo had gotten Orihime to buy for him were torn to rags from the thigh down, five bone deep gouges running the entire length of his leg.

He felt the gag reflex again.

Ayon thundered into his vision again, raising that clawed hand that must have dealt this terrible blow and Grimmjow just sat there, knowing there was nothing he could do.

"AYON!" The beast froze, and then shrank back from him, it's faceless gaze turning up.

Grimmjow only now saw that the maze had opened up into a clear space, still deep down in the earth, the walls of the maze more than twice as high as the first part here, and up above them were the clean cut tunnels of the sculpted maze. They seemed to end abruptly up there in order to open up into this large space, and Grimmjow realized that if he had been able to continue forward with Nel they would have been forced in this direction anyway, ending up in what was starting to feel like a gladiator style ring. His fear was only confirmed when the figure high above on the last edge of the maze spoke again.

"You aren't supposed to kill them so quickly, it isn't very entertaining that way."

She dropped the ten feet or so with ease and landed close to them.

He knew her.

"Apache." She was mutilated. Her left arm was gone; replaced by something else, more hollow like, pure white stripped with silver lines and ending in a three fingered claw of sorts. All over her naked body were traces of that same silver, something forced upon her in experiments no doubt. One eye was pure silver, and from her neck he could see rough spikes of some kind. She too, had been made into a chimera.

"An espada." She said in surprise. "The sixth no less, Grimmjow Jaggerjaques, what a pathetic end for you."

"Apache, why are you doing this? Did they break your soul ontop of everything else they did?"

"Of course not." She planted a foot on his ruined leg and bent down to eye level while he tried not to give her the satisfaction of a scream. "I'm just bored."

"What?"

"Oh they experimented on me." She said, reaching out a hand to trace a bead of sweat down his face, "they tortured my body, changed it. Sung-Sung too, but she didn't survive it. Mila Rose went somewhere else, her soul they did break, but they wanted to see what a whole chimera would be like. So they sent Ayon and I here."

"Why?"

"To clean house."

She suddenly dove on him, flattening him and her teeth pressed up against his neck. He tried to shove her off but sharp teeth bit down deep into the flesh.

He hollered, he fought, but she only pulled back when she wanted to, his blood drenching her face, but a look of satisfaction plastered on crimson lips.

"You will be delicious."

"B-bitch." He stammered, holding a hand up to his neck, already losing too much blood from his leg.

"Just try to give me a good show." She said stepping back.

"Fuck that." He would rather lay here and die than give her what she wanted when he knew he wasn't going to live one way or the other.

"Oh, but I thought after all that struggle you would at least try to save her."

"What?" But her nasty eyes turned to the far end of the ring where he had not seen the small figure all alone against the near wall.

"Come here, child!" Apache called.

"No..."

Nel was already hysterical by the time she came within range enough for Grimmjow to see and hear her sobs. He was already starting to feel lightheaded and her image became fuzzy before him but he let go of the wound in his neck and opened his one arm to her when she launched herself against him.

"GRIMMJOW!" She sobbed into his chest.

"Nel." He pressed his face into her bone mask. "I was coming for you."

"Nel waited. She did. She didn't want to go with the lady."

"It's okay."

"Like I said," Apache spoke over the wailing child, "put up a good fight."

"Don't. Apache don't do this. We can work together to get out of here."

She smiled wide. "Well, now I didn't expect begging from an espada. Some of the vastal lorders yes, but not an espada. How the mighty have fallen."

"Then just not Nel."

"Then where would be my show?" She backed up further, "Ayon, start at the far end, give them a chance at least."

The beast obeyed. Grimmjow watched him retreat back but then turned his attention back to Nel in his arms.

"Run, Nel."

"NO!"

"NEL RUN!"

"NOOOOO!"

"FUCK!" he saw no place for her to go anyway. They had come to the end of the maze, there was no secret way out, no reward, just death—a terrible, hateful death. He stabbed Pantera into the ground like he had so many times since entering the maze. Here though, the ground was tight packed dirk and not stone so he was able to give himself a more stable aid in order to rise. One arm down, now one leg, he stood zero chance—but he stood nonetheless because he would always stand up and face whatever he had to for the child behind him, until he fell and could rise no more.

"One last battle, Pantera."

The blade rang when he pulled it out of the soil, and it met steel sharp claws. He spun on the spot from the impact but it had deflected and he raised his sword against the next strike. The claws missed him but the now blunt end of Ayon's shortened reptilian tail hit him square in the jaw, making him stumble and blurred his vision even more.

"She died for me, you know." He growled out, when he caught sight of Apache from where she watched.

"Who?"

"Halibel. She always refereed to you as her friends, not her Fraccion." He deflected another strike. "Did you know that?"

"It doesn't matter."

The edge of a claw caught him in the cheek, ripping open his face.

"You're almost done." she informed him coldly.

"She also died for this child."

"I don't believe it."

"BELIEVE IT!" He swung hard at that strangely small face, but Ayon was barely injured and so much faster and stronger and Grimmjow only succeeded in leaving himself open. The rake across his stomach was too much. Pantera dropped in the soil. Nel screeched his name as he fell to his knees. His stomach was torn open, his hand the only thing holding him together. Nel too, desperately pressed at the sickening wound, drenching herself in his blood while she sobbed his name.

"She died for out mission." He wheezed out, Ayon at his back but Apache must have given him some sign to wait for the finishing blow. She marched up to him, picking Pantera off the ground at his feet.

"What mission?"

"To stop...the people...who did this to us."

She froze, considering his words, but then hardness overtook her again and she raised Pantera over him.

"Then she was as much a fool as you were." His last movement was to grab hold of Nel, not really expecting to shield her from the blow, but just to hold her while it ended.

But it didn't end.

Steel rang off steel. There was a thud and a grunt and when Grimmjow parted his eyes he saw Pantera on the ground before him once more, Apache on her side a few feet from him and a pair of tan legs before him.

"Maybe so," the Third espada spoke, sheathing her broken blade at her side and taking up Pantera while her former subordinate rose to meet her. "But fool or not, we will not die cowards. Apache, you disappoint me."

"...lady Halibel." but there was no love left in the mutilated arrancar, and she lunged at her.

Halibel cut her in half.

With one swipe, Apache's middle was torn wider than Grimmjow's; organs pushing out against her vain attempts to hold them in. Ayon roared in agony at their back and Halibel moved on him next.

Grimmjow could not track this battle, couldn't see with what fury Halibel fought even though twin stab wounds still marred her stomach, even though her powers were also sealed. All he knew was that the world was fading away, and by the time she returned to him, her hand pressing over his own wound at his stomach, it was far too late to save him.

"...Grimmjow...?" Nel's tiny voice was heartbreaking.

Halibel lifted her hand from his wound, knowing it was no use.

"I will take care of her." She promised him just before he could slip away, the kindest thing she could have said. He had no voice to thank her, to say good bye, only one bloody hand to raise up and place atop Nel's head.

"GRIMMJOW!" The walls exploded.

In the wake of the child's scream, those high, smooth stone walls cracked and crumbled, all around the arena. Halibel thought for several long seconds that somehow the child had mustered this power, until the dust settled and the wind tore at red-orange locks fanned out behind the teenage girl high above them. With the walls broken, Halibel instantly felt the return of his spiritual pressure, and didn't wait one second before scooping her arms under Grimmjow and Nel who was plastered to him and sonidoing up above the maze, which was quickly being drowned by sand long held at bay by those walls.

"Save him!" She demanded of Orihime when she dropped to the ground with her burden.

"I reject." the girl whispered.

Her shield didn't just take over Grimmjow's body. It enveloped them all. The power that had torn down those wall in an instant now sewed back together bone and flesh at a rate she'd never before been capable of. Her hands shook above them, but under their glow they felt such warmth and strength. In mere minutes, she undid the damage of hammers and swords, of grit and stone, of claws and teeth.

And when she stopped, there was silence. Because one child's tears had dried.

Grimmjow sat in clothes as clean as the day Orhime had given them to him. His shoulder showed no sign of ever having been touched by a hammer, his leg no clue of the break or cuts. Nel too was washed of all his blood that had stained her.

Halibel rose, those marks in her abdomen gone.

"You saved us." Grimmjow rose as well, lifting Nel with him.

"She did more than that." Halibel reached to her side and withdrew Tiburon, full, unbroken.

"You restored her zanpakuto?!" Grimmjow exclaimed, knowing this should be beyond her power.

"Not just hers," the teen whispered out, but there was no chance to explain this, she swayed where she stood and Grimmjow only just moved forward in time to catch her. "Hey, Orihime?"

"She should not have been able to do that." Halibel said while Grimmjow got his arms under the girls' knees and held her more securely against him.

"I know. She's breathing funny. We need to find the others."

He stepped forward but then paused, turning back to Halibel. He couldn't reach out to her, since he now held Orihime and Nel perched on his shoulder, bu the look in his eyes was more meaningful than any embrace.

"When I thought you were gone I...I was lost."

"Of course you were. You need me, it's why I decided not to die for you after all."

"You heard all that?"

"Most of it. I think living for you is a better plan though."

"So do I."

"Good. Then let's try to survive this."

He smiled and turned back to the horizon where Orihime had come from, where the rest of their friends now fought for their own lives. "Okay. Let's go kick some Vandenriech ass."

* * *

><p><em><strong>ARG! I have never ever experienced writers block to this level as I have with this story. I do apologize for anyone who had followed it but this morning I just decided that no matter what, I was writing a conclusion to this story. So I have just done that, it must be edited, but I feel so much better because now I can conclude this story in another chapter or two, and let this story end with some manner of dignity. So sorry for the terribly slow update!<strong>_

_**Riza**_


	26. Chapter 26

"It's over." Bambietta panted, sheathing her swords when Ichigo dropped to his knees. Water drenched him. Ice covered one ankle. A hundred microscopic cuts coated him in blood. Next to him, Uryu kept his arms wrapped around Rukia, but he was no better, horrible long gashes from Renji's stolen bankai opened up his leg.

"For all the time you two spent with your so called friends, you couldn't even defeat their power."

She scooped up Zangetsu from where he'd fallen. At her back the other Stern Ritter moved to ring the three.

"It really is quite pathetic."

"Enough." A cold voice stopped her mocking. She and the other parted for the figure who moved from darkness. "So this is her son."

His mutilated face repulsed Ichigo, but he couldn't look away from the cold eye that beheld him now.

"Ichigo Kurosaki. Son of Masaki Kurosaki—one of the last great quincies."

"Wh-what?" he stammered.

"No way," Uryu breathed.

"Yes, your father was very close to her." He looked sideways at Uryu. "In fact, you never knew your mother did you?"

"No...you can't-"

"Think about it." Bach interrupted Ichigo. "Your father is a soul reaper, after all. Mikami had a human life, before he got involved—and a human lover."

"Shut up!" But Uryu's quick mind was already doing the calculations between his and Ichigo's birthdays...where they fell in the calendar year... "Dammit!" he cursed when he put it together.

"What?" Ichigo looked to him, desperate for a straight answer. "Uryu, what?!"

"There's more than nine months between us Ichigo..."

"You don't mean-"

"Meet your brother." Bach interjected.

"No..."

"Yes. He is pure quincy, not tainted by the blood of soul reaper and hollow such as yourself. He was what I needed—but you, you are what I desire. An abomination but a quincy at your core. I didn't realize who you were at first, until I had you and that pathetic Soul Reaper captured in Hueco Mundo." He looked to Rukia. "I will strip you of your other powers, and we will see what remains of you. If I find nothing of worth—I will simply strip you of your soul."

His hand clenched around Zangetsu. Ichigo lurched forward, trying to get back to his feet.

"Screw you."

"It is pointless." Bach nodded. Two of the Stern Ritter grabbed the teen and hauled him up before their leader. Bach trailed the tip of Zangetsu over his chest. "I will cut from your soul every part of you that rebels, and then you will be mine." He withdrew the sword but gripped the blade in his bare hand.

And he consumed Zangetsu in Quincy flames.

Ichigo's scream lit up the atmosphere. Lightening broke the horizon again and again. Those endless clouds swelled and heaved and threatened to break. But the King did not relent—not until another voice cried out to him.

"Let him go."

Grimmjow dropped from the wind torn desert above to the open space where the quincies ensnared the three. Bach let up and Ichigo went limp in his captors' grasp, gasping.

"You should not have been able to escape."

"You seem to think I'm incapable of alot of things." Grimmjow brandished Pantera and stepped away from the three women at his back. Orihime was conscious but shake. She held Nel in her arms, and Halibel kept them protected—for the moment. She was hardly going to let Grimmjow take on this battle alone.

"I think it's time to end this."

"Oh, your arrogance is unmatched, espada." Bach walked toward him, Zangetsu still in his hold. "You are nothing, nobody."

"You're the one who looks like nothing, from where I'm standing." Grimmjow eyed his charred body, injuries from his fight with Yamamoto crippled him. The King stopped, as if reminded of his wounds.

"Oh, these?" He looked himself over, and the sky was split again by yellow light. "I almost forgot."

Grimmjow felt the pull of power but as before, he was unaffected. Everyone else, however, staggered, even the vandenreich soldiers. But Bach wasn't drawing from them—he was taking from everything around him. He broke down the reichi of this world and made it his own, and when his eyes lifted to Grimmjow again, he was whole. He read the curse in Grimmjow's eyes.

"That's right, espada, do you realize how foolish you have been?"

But Grimmjow smiled and took a firmer grip of his sword with both hands now. "You're not the only one who has the power to heal." His eyes darted back to Orihime. "And you're not the only one, who brought back-up."

The King turned at these words and saw the first strike fall. Soifon landed from shunko, her back aflame with the energy she too was able to glean from their environment. A quincy soldier lay unmoving at her feet, and behind her, the other rescued Soul Reapers spread out.

"I made a pit stop, before coming here." Grimmjow continued, drawing the King's attention back to him.

"I have their bankais."

"Yeah, and if anyone knows how to defeat them, it will be their rightful owners." Someone gave a cry—the battle was on. Soul reapers met Stern Ritter. Orihime ran to Ichigo when he was dropped. Uryu covered Rukia to protect her from a nearby flame of energy.

And Grimmjow collided with he Vandenreich King.

* * *

><p>"He's in shock." Uryu reasoned when Orihime lowered her light that had healed himself and Rukia but apparently done nothing for Ichigo. The little soul reaper was still coming to terms with the fact Orihime had restored her powers in mere seconds. Ichigo, however, was still trembling where he sat between them, in the middle of the battle that raged around them.<p>

"I don't know what he did to me." He clutched at his chest.

"He was tearing you apart from the inside out." Uryu said.

"Uryu..." Ichigo looked to him. "What he said-"

"Now is really not the time." But he stood and got a hand on Ichigo's wrist and pulled him to his feet. "We have to get your sword back, and then we have to get you out of here."

"What? I'm not leaving in the middle of the fight."

"Sorry, but you're dead weight. Rukia, Orihime, can I leave him with you?"

"Why, where are you going?" Rukia questioned.

"To find my father."

She accepted this, but shook her head. "I will go. You are the only one who knows a way out of this world."

He watched her. "He's my father."

"And I'm your friend. I give you my word I will find him, I will save him."

"That won't be necessary." The voice made them all jump.

"Dad." Ichigo said when he saw Isshin, blood coating one side, but most of it dripping from the man he held.

"Father." Uryu moved to take Ryuken's weight at once. "Orihime."

"Of course." She raised her shield but the elder Ishida protested.

"There isn't time."

"What?"

"This is the Vale of Eden." Isshin took over the explanation and looked to the sky that was being split buy lightening again and again. "It was only ever mean to be a realm where lost souls were returned to where they belong. The Vandenreich put up spells that allowed them to live here—Ryuken and I just undid them."

"WHAT?" Ichigo exclaimed.

"This world will collapse in minutes if not sooner. We have to get out now!"

"What about the others?" Ichigo protested.

"I'll tell them." Rukia was gone before he could stop her.

"Come on, Son, it's time to go home, and let the balance take care of these bastards for us."

Isshin got his arm and propelled Ichigo forward just as the first earthquake shook the world.

* * *

><p>"Shit." Grimmjow spat on his knees, hand to his side. "What the hell was that?"<p>

The King was engaged with Halibel but looked to the sky.

They heard thunder.

"Those idiots."

"The world is collapsing." Soifon warned. She had also put her digs into the Vandenreich King after she'd stolen back her bankai. She still held onto the medallion that contained it, but for now, she was satisfied to have it back in her hands—as were most the captains.

"We have to go!" Rukia landed next to her. "I've told all the others."

"How?" Soifon questioned.

"Uryu and Ryuken can get us out. We have to go now."

"Fools." Bach slammed Halibel back. She landed not far from Orihime and Nel. "We'll just follow you back and destroy you in your own world."

Soifon's eyes narrowed, knowing he was right, but Grimmjow came up again and slashed out with Pantera, catching the King's sword arm. Zangetsu hit the ground.

"Girl!" He kicked the blade back in the direction of Orihime. "RUN!"

Nel hopped free of her embrace so Orihime could pick up Zangetsu. But her eyes widened when she lifted them back up.

"GRIMMJOW!"

"You should not have turned your back on me."

He lurched when Bach's swords cut into his back and tore through bone and muscle until it was on his other side.

"Damn it." Halibel whirled back to Orihime. "RUN!" Then she raised Tiburon and dove at Bach.

"Pathetic." He met her attack with a bow of blue light. She fell when an arrow pierced her thigh.

"Bastard." She pulled the glowing blue shaft from her leg, fire in her eyes. He raised his bow again.

"Stop!" Rukia raised her blade.

"You will die together then!" But before he could release, Soifon struck at him sideways. They tumbled before breaking apart. She staggered and Rukia saw the blood on her stomach. Bach smiled.

"As if a woman could defeat me."

"Then how about a child?" None of them had been paying attention to Nel.

None of them but Grimmjow had watched her transform from girl to woman and the battle torn ground. The swell of power had been masked in the breaking of the world, so not even Juha Bach had been prepared when she raised the long crescent moon handled katana to his throat.

"You gave up this form—this power." Bach argued against what his eyes saw. "To save him." He looked to Grimmjow, still on his knees.

"I am his soul." She said. "And he is mine. I will always exist to protect him, as he has protected me."

She swung.

"The girl...Orihime..." Halibel said from the ground where she gripped her own renewed blade. "She must have given Nel back her strength as well."

The earth trembled even more violently. "We have to go." Soifon said. "The King will perish here."

"Grimmjow." But Halibel could hardly stand on her wounded leg. Rukia helped take her weight but looked to Soifon.

"Please help him, Captain, he's been our ally for weeks now."

"Fine." She consented to Rukia's request. "Now go!" Rukia did, taking Halibel with her. Nel and Bach were still engaged, Soifon moved to the fallen espada. She took hold of the sword in his chest.

He screamed when it came free and fell forward into her.

"Time to go, espada." But his hand came up to her arm and held it tight,

"No."

"What?"

"Nel...she'll hold him here, until the end." "Most likely."

"Then I can't go."

"You'll only die with them."

"It's my choice." A crack formed int he earth. A sonic boom of thunder cracked the air and rain began to fall.

"It's starting. This world is breaking."

"Then go."

"No." Soifon stood. "It is my duty to make sure Bach falls here."

"If you don't go," Grimmjow argued, "the others will hold the doorway open, waiting for you, for us. You have to go, make them close it."

She considered him for a long moment, then held out her hand to him. He took it, and with her help rose. "I never would have thought I would be putting my trust in an espada."

"Just go." He grunted, hand tight over the wound in his chest. "And do me a favour."

"What?"

"Tell Halibel I'm sorry. But this was how it had to be."

She nodded. "Good bye, espda."

She was gone. Grimmjow picked up Pantera.

"Nel." He spoke low but she heard and disengaged from Bach. "We do it together."

"You cannot defeat me." The King argued.

"We don't have to defeat you." Grimmjow took hold of Pantera with both hands. "We just have to hold you."

The King barked out a response but it was lost in another defeaning snap of thunder. The amphitheatre was ruptured, the false structures of this world were falling to pieces.

And Grimmjow and Nel moved as one.

Blue light lashed at his face, Grimmjow lost sight for a moment but Nel never stopped. She pulled the King's attention to one side and it was enough. Pantera slid through the back of one shoulder, Nel's through the front of another, and Bach was pinned by their blades—two zanpakutos connected like no others. Grimmjow looked into her eyes past the body of their enemy who struggled to get free—but no matter what strength of King or quincy or man—he would never be able to pull apart two souls so closely bound.

And so he was trapped in his dead and dying world, as it crumpled all around him.

And then the world collapsed.

* * *

><p>"No..." Hablibel breathed when Soifon came through to Hueco Mundo alone. "NO!" She screamed when a short nod from the captain was enough to tell Ryuken to end it. The connection closed before the Third espada could reach that gap in space. She stood on her wounded leg in the empty grey sands, and stared at where the hole had been.<p>

"He told me to tell you there was no other way, and that he was sorry." Soifon said to her. Orihime was with Ichigo, her hands came up to her mouth, his fingers tightened over her shoulders.

"They're both gone?" He finally spoke.

"They stayed to hold back Bach."

"Dammit." He cursed and pulled Orihime against him when the first tears fell down his cheeks, but his eyes remained fixed on Halibel's back as she stood staring forward at the vacant, hollow desert.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Only the epilogue remains, I will post it soon! Glad that there are some people still following this and I am glad I can finally give you all a conclusion!<em>**

**_Riza_**


	27. Epilogue

**Three days later**

"Rukia. Hey," Ichigo greeted when he found her outside his home. "How are things in Soul Society?"

"Recovering. It's hard to believe things are getting back to normal after all we've been through."

"Yeah..." But he turned sullen and there was no doubt why.

"Have you seen Halibel?" she asked.

"Not since she left us in the desert."

"Oh, I thought she might come back."

"There's no reason for her to. She fought with us to save Grimmjow...there's no reason for her to remain in touch now."

"I know it's hard. He was one of us in the end...and Nel..."

"She was just a kid, Rukia. She was my friend."

"I know. And I am sorry things had to end that way."

He just nodded but gave a sniff.

She closed a hand over his and looked to the sky. "They were in the land of lost souls, Ichigo. If it has gone back to rights, then it will send them where they need to go. No one's ever really gone, Ichigo, Soul Reapers know that best. They're just somewhere else."

"I guess." He swallowed hard but looked up to the sky as well. "For all his hatred and arrogance, it took one little girl to make him capable of love."

She smiled. "Maybe that was greatest miracle of all." They lowered her eyes and she squeezed his hand tighter when she saw the tear. "A love like that will never die," she comforted. "Wherever their spirits are now, I'm sure they are together. Come on, let's go have some tea at Urahara's and you can tell me what it's like to have a new brother."

* * *

><p>The yip and yap of the dog's bark echoed off broken stone. Halibel worked her way through the ruins of Las Noches until she found him.<p>

"What?"

Dog just yapped again, wagged his tail and ran in the opposite direction.

"Stupid dog." But with nothing else for her in this barren landscape, she followed after. She lost sight of him quickly as he was much smaller and able to squeeze through narrow spaces, but when he burst out into the desert he waited for her to catch up. She ducked under a fallen beam and felt the open desert wind and knew she was near the end of the ruins.

"Dog!" The high voice stopped her dead. She stood frozen, just a half broken wall between her and the hollow pet. "Good dog!" The voice sounded again, unmistakable, especially with the next words, "Nel missed you!"

"...Nel..." Halibel ran the last few feet and broke out onto silver sands. She stood in cold shock, her eyes working from the dog, to the girl, to the man who towered over her.

"You bastard."

"Halibel," Grimmjow greeted, his white t-shirt and black jeans still torn and bloody from his battle with Bach but none of his wounds visible. "Sorry."

"Sorry?" She took another step. Nel heard the dangerous edge to her voice and straightened with dog who whined in her arms. "You left me behind."

"Halibel—"

"After everything I did to save you—both of you—you left me behind!"

She grabbed him around the collar and pulled him close.

"You would have just been trapped with us." he argued. "You think I prefer being here? In this wasteland alone?" "I—"

"Don't you ever think you have the right to make that kind of decision for me again." She shoved him back, trembling, and looked between the pair. "How are you even alive?"

"I don't know," Grimmjow admitted. "My best guess is that the balance put us back where we belong."

"Lost souls..." she murmured, putting it back together. "So many hollows died, the world was trying to balance itself—it must have returned you to preserve the balance."

"I guess."

"Then what about Bach?"

"I don't know. But he was the one that broke the balance in the first place. If the universe did try to put itself to rights, then I'm sure it didn't send him anywhere but Hell."

"But we can't be sure! We'll have to go to the world of the living and to Soul Society and make sure he hasn't come back."

"We will," Grimmjow assured her. "But not yet."

"Why?"

"Because I've been waiting too long, to do this." He stepped toward her, she held up her hands and kept him from moving in entirely. "Halibel—"

"Shut up. You think I'll forgive you for what you did?"

"I tried to save the world."

"Without me. Don't you know, you can't survive without me?"

"I do know that. And so does the universe, because it sent me back here, to you."

"Good, as long as we have an understanding." And she pulled him into her.

"Yech!" Nel made a noise of disgust and turned her back on the pair with dog still in her arms.

"What about her?" Halibel asked, when she pulled back from him. "She was able to call on her adult form again."

"I don't know." Grimmjow knelt down next to the girl and put a hand on her head. "Nel, how do you feel?"

"Hungry! Nel wants ice-cream!"

"Okay, but how does your soul feel?"

She shrugged. "Nel doesn't know."

He sighed and picked her up with him as he stood. "I guess that's as good an answer as we're going to get," he said to Halibel. "So, want to check the world of the living first? We should probably let Kurosaki know we're alive anyway."

She nodded. "I'll open the Garganta."

"You sure, you're okay?" He turned to the girl hugged in one arm. "The universe didn't screw up when it spit you back out, did it?"

"Nope! Did it screw up Grimmjow?" she asked in return.

"No, I don't think so."

"Good."

"Ready?" Halibel turned back to him.

"Ready." he confirmed but kept his eyes on the little girl he'd gone through hell and back to save, and who had given up her very soul to save him back. "Come on Nel, let's get you some ice cream."

* * *

><p><strong><em>THE END! Wow, I have never been so happy to be able to tick "complete" for a story. Not that I disliked this one, I just lost momentum with it and it's been hanging over my forever so I am really glad to be able to conclude it and I am so sorry for the long wait for those of you still following. Thanks so much for reading!<em>**

**_Riza._**


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